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CROP  GROWING  AND 
CROP  FEEDING 


A  BOOK  FOR  THE 


FARM,  GARDEN  AND  ORCHARD 

With  Special  Reference  to  the  Practical  Methods  of  Using  Commercial 

Fertilizers  Therein. 


BY  W.  F.  MASSEY 

Member  of  the  National   Geographic  Society,    Vice  President  of  the  North  Carolina 

Horticultural  Society,  Professor  of  Horticulture  and  Vegetable  Biology,  North 

Carolina  College  of  Agriculture  and  Mechanic  Arts,  Raleigh,  N.  C» 


JULY,  J' 

No.  3.    Vol.  3.    THE  PRACTICAL  FARMERS'  LIBRARY,  Published  Quarterly  by 
fc  The  Farmer  Company  Philadelphia. 

Subscription,  $2.00  per  Year.    Single  Copies,  50  Cents 


fc 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  In  19()1,  by 

Thk  Fakmkk  Ck). 
In  the  Library  of  Congress  at  Washington,  D,  C. 


^^f^^RAL 


101931 


GENERAL 


m 


PREFACE. 


This  book  is  the  result  of  an  effort  to  put  into  the  plain  language  of  the  farm 
the  facts  which  scientists  have  worked  out  in  the  laboratory,  and  which  practical 
experience  has  proved  to  be  applicable  to  the  every  day  work  of  the  farm.  It  is 
written  for  men  who  know  nothing  of  chemistry,  but  who  are  anxious  to  learn 
something  of  the  chemical  combinations  that  are  of  value  in  the  feeding  of  crops, 
and  the  best  way  to  use  them  in  the  permanent  improvement  of  their  soil.  For 
men  who  know  nothing  of  the  mysteries  of  plant  life,  but  who  are  anxious  to  learn 
how  plants  live,  grow  and  perform  all  their  work  in  soil  and  air,  so  that  they  may 
be  better  able  to  comprehend  their  needs,  and  supply  them  in  a  rational  manner. 

While  endeavoring  to  make  the  book  scientifically  accurate  in  all  its  statements 
I  have  tried  to  avoid  all  pedantry,  but  to  make  the  whole  so  plain  that  the  "way- 
faring man,  though  a  fool,  need  not  err."  I  have  undertaken  the  work  with 
a  good  deal  of  misgiving  as  to  what  should  be  its  exact  position  on  some  of  the 
problems  in  nature  as  yet  not  fully  solved,  and  about  which  there  is  much  yet 
to  be  learned  by  the  wisest  minds.  When  such  problems  are  attempted,  I  will 
candidly  say  that  I  do  not  as  yet  fully  comprehend  the  processes  involved,  I  will 
give  the  results  so  far  as  they  are  known.  The  acquirement  of  nitrogen 
by  leguminous  plants  is  one  of  the  problems  that  has  not  yet  been  fully  worked 
out,  and  while  we  know  that  they  do  get  the  nitrogen  through  the  agency  of 
minute  organisms  that  live  with  them  on  their  roots,  the  exact  process  by  which 
these  microscopic  forms  get  the  nitrogen  is  not  yet  fully  understood.  But  for  our 
purpose  it  is  enough  to  know  that  they  do  get  it  and  store  it  in  the  roots  and  soil 
for  the  future  crop. 


N.  C.  College  of  A.  &.  M.  A., 

Raleigh,  N.  C. 


(5) 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


Preface 5 

Introduction. 11-16 

Chapter  I.— The  Air 17 

How  green  leaved  plants  get  food  from  the  air. — How  plants  get  food 
from  the  soil. — The  course  of  the  soil-water  in  the  plant. 

Chapter  II. — The  Growth  of  a  Seed 24 

The  flower.— The  fruit. 

Chapter  III. — Plant  Breeding  28 

Improving  the  cotton  plant. — cotton  breeding. 

Chapter  IV.— The  Soil 40 

Living  soils  and  dead  soils. — How  to  determine  what  the  soil  needs. 

Chapter  V.— Plant  Food 46 

Chapter  VI. — Sonrees  of  Fertilizing  Materials 48 

Sources  of  nitrogen. — Barnyard  and  stable  manures. — No  need  for 
buying  nitrogen. — Leguminous  plants  the  true  source  of  nitrogen  for 
the  farmer. 

Chapter  VII. — Phosphorus,  Its  Sources  and  Use  in  Plant  Feeding 61 

Bone  meal  as  a  source  of  phosphoric  acid. — Thomas  slag,  slag  meal, 
basic  slag  as  a  source  of  phosphoric  acid. — Marls  as  a  source  of  phos- 
phoric acid. — Phosphatic  guano. — The  great  phosphate  rock  deposits. 
— Some  erroneous  popular  names. — The  value  of  insoluble  phasphates. 

(6) 


Contents  7 

Chapter  VllL— Potash 70 

Potash  as  essential  plant  food. — Soils  which  need  potash  most. — 
What  is  the  best  form  of  potash? — Ciude  potash  salts. — Manufac- 
ture-d  potash  salts, — Capacity  of  the  soil  for  absorbing  potash. — 
Dangers  from  potash. — Potash  in  waste  products.— Cotton  seed  hull 
ashes. — Green  sand  marl. 

Chapter  IX. — Lime  and  Liming  Land 77 

Sulphate  of  lime  from  plaster. — Gas  house  lime. — Sulphate  of  lime  as 
a  waste  product. — Agricultural  salt. — Shell  marls. — Tan  bark  ashes. 
— Swamp  muck  or  peat. 

Chapter  X. — Mixing  Fertilizers  on  the  Farm 85 

How  to  mix  fertilizers. 

Chapter  XL — The  Maintenance  of  Fertility 94 

Using  fertilizers  in  continuous  cropping. — Why  a  short  rotation  is 
best. — Some  of  the  mistakes  made. 

Chapter  XII. — How  to  Use  Commercial  Fertilizers  for  the  Maintenance 

of   Fertility 102 

The  rotation  for  the  cotton  crop. — What  is  the  best  rotation  for  cot- 
ton?— Curing  the  pea  vine  hay. — Resting  the  land. — Another  cotton 
rotation. 

Chapter  XIII. — Where  Winter  Wheat  is  the  Money  Crop 120 

Rotations  for  the  winter  wheat  crop. — Fertilizers  for  wheat. — What 
a  crop  of  wheat  removes  from  the  soil. — Thorough  preparation  of  the 
soil  as  important  as  fertilizers  for  wheat. — Green  manuring  for  wheat. 
— ^W^heat  after  a  hoed  crop. 

Chapter  XIV. — Fertilizers  for  the  Permanent  Pasture 133 

Grasses  for  permanent  pasture. 

Chapter  XV.— Fertilizers  Where  Hay  is  the  Money  Crop 137 

Farming  for  hay. 

Chapter  XVL— Where  Tobacco  is  the  Money  Crop 141 

Forms  of  fertilizers  for  tobacco. 

Chapter  XVIL — Fertilizers  for  the  Corn  Crop 14fi 

How  shall  we  utilize  the  corn  crop  as  a  food  crop? — The  silo  and  en- 
silage.— Making  the  ensilage. — The  feeding  value  of  ensilage. — Ma- 
nure from  ensilage  feeding. — Shredding  the  fodder  from  corn  crop. 

Chapter  XVITL— Testing  the  Needs  of  the  Soil 154 


8  Contents 

Chapter  XXXII.— Lettuce 223 

Culture  of  frame  lettuce  in  the  South. — Lettuce  in  the  open  ground. 
— The  manurial  requirements  of  lettuce. — Varieties  of  lettuce. 

Chapter  XXXIII.— Melons 228 

Muskmelons. — Watermelons. 

Chapter  XXXIV.— Onions 231 

Growing  the  sets. — Early  green  onions  in  the  South. — The  general 
crop  of  onions. — Varieties  for  keeping. — Another  method  of  growing 
onions. — Fertilizers  for  the  onion  crop. 

Chapter  XXXV. — English,  or  Garden,  Peas 237 

Chapter  XXXVI.— Irish  Potaotes 238 

Soils  for  the  potato  crop. — Manurial  requirements  of  the  potato. — 
Potatoes  as  a  field  crop  in  the  North. — Cultivation. — Early  potatoes 
in  the  South. — Fertilizing  the  Southern  early  crop. — Growing  seed 
potatoes  in  the  South.  Potatoes  in  the  home  garden. — Varieties  of 
potatoes. — Do  potatoes  run  out? — Some  Station  investigations  of 
Po'tato  culture  and  manuring. 

Chapter  XXXVII.— Sweet  Potatoes 255 

Manuring  for  the  sweet  potato  crop. — Growing  the  plants. — Cultiva- 
tion of  the  sweet  potato. — Planting  the  late  crop  in  the  South. — Har- 
vesting sweet  potatoes. — Keeping  sweet  potatoes  in  winter. — Con- 
struction of  a  potato  house. — Sweet  potatoes  North  and  South. — Varie- 
ties of  the  sweet  potatoes. — Evaporating  sweet  potatoes. — Yields  of 
sweet  potatoes  from  large  and  small  tubers. 

Chapter  XXXVIII.— Tomatoes 264 

Growing  the  plants. — Fertilizing  the  tomato  crop. — The  field  crop 
of  tomatoes. — Southern  blight. — Varieties  of  tomatoes. — Forcing 
tomatoes  in  winter.  —  Shall  tomatoes  be  pruned  in  the  open 
ground. — The  forcing  house  for  tomatoes. — Commercial  fertilizers  in 
tomato  forcing. — Further  reports  on  chemical  fertilizers  in  forcing 
tomatoes. 

Chapter  XXXIX. — Some  Special  Formulas  for  Truck  Crops .281 

For  celery. — For  Irish  potatoes. — For  beets  and  lettuce. — For  cab 
bages,  cauliflowers,  cucumbers  and  melons. — For  spinach. — For 
radishes  and  turnips. — For  asparagus. — For  egg  plants  and  tcmtttoes. 
— For  onions. — For  sweet  potatoes. — For  beans  and  peas. 

Chapter  XL. — Some  Station  Investigations  of  Fertilizers 284 

Rhode  Island  potato  formulas. — Proposed  formula  for  oniuns. — Rhode 
Island  formula  for  general  purposes. — A  compost  with  hen  manure. — 
Formula  for  corn  on  a  sandy  soil. — Formula  for  millet  and  Hun- 
garian.— Formula  for  barley. — Formula  for  spinacn.  lettuce,  etc. — 
Chemical  action  of  lime. — Biorchemical  effects  or  lime. — When  to 
apply  lime. — Improvement  of  worn  lands. 


Contents  9 

CiiArTEii  XIX. — The  Restoration  of  Worn  Out  Land 158 

Chapter  XX. — How  Legumes  Help  the  Farmer 161 

Nitrification  in  general. — Taking  free  nitrogen  from  the  air  through 
plant  growth. — Nitrification  of  organic  matter  in  soils. — Conditions 
essential  to  the  formation  of  nitrates  in  the  soil. — Nitrification  and 
its  products. — Nitrates  are  easily  drained  from  the  soil. — Crops  which 
prevent  loss  of  nitrogen. — Nitrogen  fixing  crops  and  their  place  in  a 
rotation. 

Chapter  XXI. — The  Best  Leguminous  Phmts 168 

Red  clover. — The  place  for  clover  in  a  rotation. — Crimson  clover. — 
Cow  peas. — Vetches. — Burr  clover. — The  soy  bean. — The  velvet  bean. 
— The  peanut. — Varieties  of  the  peanut. — Alfalfa. — Forage  plants  not 
leguminous. — Millets. — Teosinte. — Kafl!ir  corn. 

Chapter  XXIL — Some  Minor  Crops 185 

Oats. — Soiling  crops. — Crops  for  hogs  to  gather. 

Chapter  XXIII. — Commercial  Fertilizers  and  the  Market  Garden 193 

Complete  fertilisers  essential  to  the  garden  crops. — Home  mixing 
essential  to  the  market  gardener. 

Chapter  XXIV. — Asparagus 196 

Growing  the  plants. — Preparing  for  the  permanent  plantation. 

Chapter  XXV. — Beans  in  the  Market  Garden 200 

Lima  beans. — Forcing  snap  beans. 

Chapter   XXVL— Cabbages 203 

Succession,  or  summer  cabbages. — Late  cabbages. — Late  cabbages  in 
the  South. 

Chapter  XXVIL— Cauliflower 208 

Early  cauliflowers  in  the  South. — Cauliflower  seed  and  varieties. 

Chapter   XXVIIL— Corn 211 

Chapter  XXIX.— Celery 213 

Methods  of  culture. — Other  methods  of  blanching  celery. — Fertilizers 
for  the  celery  crop. — Varieties  of  celery. 

Chapter  XXX. — Cucumbers .218 

Varieties  of  cucumbers. — Fertilizers  for  the  cucumber  crop. — Starting 
cucumbers  under  glass  to  advance  them. 

Chapter  XXXI.— Egg  Plants 221 

Varieties  of  egg  plants. — Fertilization. 


10  Contents 

Chapter  XLI. — Frauds  in  Fertilizers 298 

The  man  v/ith  a  secret. 

CiiAPTEU  XIxLl. — The  Strawberry  as  a  Field  Crop 306 

Manurial  requirements  of  the  strawberry. — Fertilizer  formula  for  the 

strawberry. — Forcing  the  strawberry. 

Chapter  XLIII. — Blackberries  and  Raspberries 310 

Blackberries  and  raspberries. — Manurial  needs  of  black  and  raspber- 
ries.^— ^Propagating  the  plants. 

Chapter  XLIY.— Fertilizers  in  the  Vineyard  and  Orchard 313 

Feeding  the  apple  orchard. — Planting  an  apple  orchard. — Starting  the 
trees. — Cultivating  and  cropping  the  orchard. — Analysis  of  the  apple 
tree  and  its  products. 

Chapter  XLV.— The  Pear 320 

Feeding  the  pear. 

Chapter  XLVI. — Peaches,  Plums  and  Cherries 325 

Planting- a  peach  orchard. — Feeding  the  peach. — The  plum. — Cherries. 

Chapter  XLVII.— The  Grape 333 

Propagation  of  the  grape. 

Chapter  XLVIII.— Gardening  Under  Glass 336 

Winter  lettuce. — Lettuce  in  cold  frames. — Making  the  frames. — Soil 
and  planting. — Cauliflower  and  lettuce  combined. — Radishes  and  beets 
in  frames. — Cold  frame  culture  in  more  northern  sections. — Frame 
culture  of  winter  flowers  in  frames. — Frames  for  the  commercial 
florist  in  the  South. — Propagating  tender  roses  in  the  South. — Prop- 
agating hardy  roses  in  frames  North. — Asparagus  in  cold  frames. — 
Strawberries  in  frames. — Importance  of  water  in  intensive  garden- 
ing.— Hotbeds. — The  forcing  house. 

Chapter  XLIX. — Some  General   Conclusions 362 


Appendix    373 

Useful  tables. — Constituents  of  forage  plants  per  acre. — Ashes. — 
Percentage  of  the  availability  of  the  different  forms  of  nitrogen. — 
What  crops  remove  from  the  soil. — Analysis  of  the  fertilizer  and 
fertilizer  materials. — Amount  and  value  of  manure  produced  by  dif- 
ferent farm  animals. — Food  constituents  of  different  parts  of  the 
peanut  plant. 


INTRODUCTION. 


The  only  excuse  I  have  to  offer  for  the  manner  in  which  this  book  presents  the 
subject  of  crop  growing  and  crop  feeding,  is  the  fact  that  there  is  so  much  of 
ignorance,  even  among  men  nominally  educated,  in  regard  to  the  vital  processes 
in  plant  life.  I  meet  men  daily,  who  have  taken  college  degrees  and  are  in 
professional  life,  who  still  think  that  the  sap  rises  in  the  trees  in  the  spring  and 
runs  down  in  the  fall;  that  is  about  all  they  know  of  plant  life,  and  even  that 
little  is  not  true.  They  have  never  studied  plant  life  in  an  intelligent  manner, 
for  in  all  of  the  old  college  curriculums  botany  has  been  rigorously  ignored,  or 
even  if  attempted,  it  was  only  a  little  spring  time  study  and  a  brief  effort  to  learn 
the  scientific  names  by  which  the  plants  are  called;  the  main  effort  was  merely 
to  do  this,  and  the  result  was  that  the  student  knew  no  more  about  the  wonderful 
life  of  the  plants  around  him  than  he  did  before.  Hence  educated  men,  or  rather 
men  crammed  with  the  information  of  the  books,  fall  into  all  sorts  of  errors  and 
believe  all  sorts  of  old  wives'  fables  about  plants.  A  very  intelligent  gentleman 
who  is  interested  in  some  phosphatic  rock  mines  in  this  State,  told  me  once  that 
the  rock  they  mined  was  more  soluble  than  ordinary  phosphatic  rock  because 
of  the  heavy  forest  growth  above  the  deposit,  for  the  sap  running  out  from  the 
roots  of  the  trees  in  the  fall  had  a  solvent  effect  on  the  rock  below.  This  man 
has  traveled  all  over  Europe  and  America,  and  has  a  large  fund  of  general  infor- 
mation, and  no  argument  I  could  use  would  convince  him  that  no  sap  runs  from  the 
trees  in  the  fall.  Late  one  fall  a  few  years  ago  a  reader  of  one  of  our  city  papers 
wrote  an  inquiry  to  the  editor,  saying  that  he  had  noticed  that  just  before  a  rain 
the  springs  and  brooks  had  swelled,  and  he  wanted  to  know  the  reason.  The 
editor,  a  college  bred  man,  told  him  that  the  explanation  was  perfectly  simple, 
as  at  that  season  the  sap  was  running  out  of  the  tree  roots  and  raised  the  springs. 
He  never  seemed  to  think  of  the  real  reason,  the  release  of  atmospheric  pressure 
just  before  a  rain.  I  wrote  to  the  paper  and  told  him  that  there  was  no  such  thing 
as  sap  running  out  of  the  roots  of  the  trees,  and  entered  into  some  explanation  of 
the  processes  of  plant  life.  It  was  amusing  after  my  letter  was  published,  to  note 
the  surprise  with  which  it  was  received.  Educated  men  stopped  me  on  the  street 
and  asked  if  it  was  really  true  that  the  sap  does  not  run  out  of  the  roots,  and 
that  all  plants  get  the  larger  part  of  their  fabric  from  the  air  and  not  from  the  soil. 

(U) 


12  Introduction". 

This  same  general  ignorance  in  regard  to  plant  life  is  the  cause  of  so  many- 
otherwise  intelligent  men  believing  that  one  plant  can  be  suddenly  transformed 
into  an  entirely  different  one.  That  wheat  will  change  to  chess  or  cheat.  Men 
who  have  studied  the  life  history  of  vegetation  know  the  utter  absurdity  of  this 
notion,  but  it  is  so  firmly  fixed  in  the  minds  of  many  intelligent  men  that  it  is 
perfectly  useless  to  argue  with  them.  They  have  never  been  taught  accuracy  of 
observation  in  their  youth,  and  hence  jump  to  conclusions  that  are  not  warranted 
by  the  facts.  Some  months  ago  a  farmer  in  this  State  wrote  me  a  letter,  asking 
if  there  was  any  premium  offered  by  the  Agricultural  Department  of  the  State  for 
the  positive  proof  that  wheat  would  turn  to  cheat.  I  answered  that  there  was  no 
such  offer,  and  I  knew^  there  was  no  such  proof.  A  friend  of  mine,  a  leading 
lawyer  of  the  writer's  neighborhood,  then  wrote  to  me  that  I  had  treated  his  friend 
rather  curtly,  for  he  knew  that  he  had  the  positive  proof,  and  he  would  send  it  to 
me.  Accordingly  a  few  days  after  I  received  a  package  containing  a  well  grown 
plant  of  cheat  with  numerous  wheat  grains  adhering  to  the  tips  of  the  rootlets. 
I  wrote  to  the  lawyer  that  if  this  was  what  he  called  proof,  he  would  have  to 
learn  to  sift  evidence  better  or  his  reputation  as  a  lawyer  would  suffer.  The  fact 
that  dead  wheat  grains  were  attached  to  the  feeding  tips  of  the  rootlets  of  the 
cheat,  was  simply  proof  that  the  wheat  decayed  and  the  roots  of  the  cheat  found 
the  grains  and  were  feeding  on  them.  If  the  cheat  had  really  germinated  from  the 
wheat,  the  grains  would  never  have  been  found  on  the  place  where  the  absorptive 
root  hairs  were  foraging  for  food,  but  would  have  been  right  up  where  they 
started  from,  and  that  what  he  regarded  as  positive  proof  of  the  transformation 
of  wheat  into  cheat  was,  on  the  other  hand,  a  positive  proof  that  no  such  change 
had  taken  place,  for  the  roots  were  simply  seeking  food,  and  the  weather  con- 
ditions that  killed  the  wheat  were  just  the  kind  that  were  favorable  to  the 
development  of  the  hardy  cheat,  which  never  winter  kills.  It  is  with  the  hope 
that  a  study  in  a  simple  manner  of  some  of  the  processes  of  plant  life  will  help  to 
banish  superstitions,  and  will  be  the  means  of  some  of  our  readers  getting  a  better 
understanding  of  the  reasons  that  underlie  the  culture  of  our  crops,  and  the  sup- 
plying of  them  with  food.  We  have  made  the  effort  to  avoid,  as  far  as  possible, 
language  that  might  confuse  the  unlearned,  and  to  clothe  facts  in  the  every  day 
language  of  the  farm  so  far  as  possible. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  we  state  that  95  per  cent,  or  more  of  every  plant  comes 
from  the  air,  and  not  from  the  soil,  and  we  endeavor  to  explain  how  the  plant  gets 
the  material  from  the  air.  But  to  see  in  a  practical  way  how  much  of  a  plant 
comes  from  the  air,  take  a  good  sized  corn  stalk  and  weigh  it.  Now  cut  it  up  and 
dry  it  thoroughly.  Not  merely  air-dry,  but  dry  it  as  a  chemist  would  dry  it  in 
his  dry  bath.  Now  weigh  it  again,  and  you  find  that  it  contained  a  great  deal 
of  water.  Now  burn  it  carefully  and  completely,  till  you  have  only  white  ashes 
left.  You  will  find  that  these  weigh  but  a  trifle  as  compared  with  the  great  corn 
plant.  And  yet  that  little  handful  of  ashes  contains  all  the  plant  got  from  the 
soil  except  the  nitrogen,  and  that  the  soil  originally  got  from  the  air.  The 
mineral  matters,  or  ash  elements,  are  what  you  have  left  in  the  ashes.  The  rest 
was  carbon  and  water,  and  it  has  gone  off  in  the  shape  in  which  the  plant  originally 
got  it,  as  carbonic  acid,  to  feed  other  plants  and  make  other  structures,  for  there  is 
no  destruction  in  nature.     The  same  old  materials  are  being  used  over  and  over 


Introduction.  13 

again,  perpetually  building  up  new  forms.  In  regard  to  the  nature  of  commercial 
fertilizers,  there  is  a  general  notion  among  farmers  that  they  are  mere  stimulants, 
and  that  while  they  can  be  used  to  increase  crops,  their  final  effect  is  to  exhaust 
the  soil.  The  injudicious  way  in  which  commercial  fertilizers  have  been  used  in 
the  Eastern  Middle  States,  and  in  the  Southern  States,  has  led  to  this  opinion. 
Used  as  they  have  been  in  the  past  by  the  cotton  and  tobacco  growers  of  the  South, 
they  have  been  a  curse  to  the  country,  and  have  led  to  poverty  of  soil  and  poverty 
to  the  farmer. 

But  this  is  not  the  fault  of  the  commercial  fertilizer,  for  well  prepared  fer- 
tilizers are  simply  plant  food,  such  as  we  find  in  any  manure;  and  if  properly  used 
for  the  improvement  of  the  soil,  they  can  be  made  the  means  of  restoring  and 
maintaining  the  fertility  of  our  lands  more  efficiently  and  cheaply  than  in  any 
other  manner.  The  only  classes  of  substances  used  as  applications  to  the  soil 
to  which  the  term  stimulant  can  be  properly  applied  are  lime  and  plaster.  These 
are  used  not  so  much  for  their  value  as  plant  food,  but  for  their  effects  in  ren- 
dering other  matters,  notably  potash,  available  in  the  soil.  They  thus  stimulate 
the  soil  to  give  up  to  plants  matters  it  already  has,  and  thus  gradually  tend 
to  the  exhaustion  of  these  things  if  carelessly  used,  with  the  notion  that  lime  and 
plaster  will  make  land  rich  because  we  see  a  good  effect  from  their  application. 
There  are  extensive  districts  in  the  North,  where  once  the  farmers  got  large  crops 
from  the  use  of  plaster  alone,  and  imagining  that  plaster  was  all  they  needed, 
they  kept  on  in  its  application,  and  now  find  that  there  is  nothing  more  for  the 
plaster  to  give  them  and  are  compelled  to  use  commercial  fertilizers  liberally. 
Had  they  known  more  of  the  real  work  the  plaster  was  doing  for  them  they  could 
have  avoided  the  gradual  exhaustion  of  the  mineral  elements  in  their  soil.  But 
there  are  some  writers  who  would  persuade  the  farmer  that  in  the  use  of  com- 
mercial fertilizers  alone  they  have  all  that  is  needed,  and  that  land  can  be  kept 
perennially  fertile  simply  by  giving  every  crop  a  liberal  application  of  a  complete 
fertilizer.  They  beg  us,  when  we  urge  the  farmer  to  adopt  a  good  rotation  of 
crops  in  which  the  legumes  are  brought  frequently  to  accumulate  humus  in  the 
soil,  to  "give  humus  a  rest,"  insisting  that  humus  is  not  plant  food,  and  that  crops 
can  be  grown  as  well  without  it  as  with  it.  It  may  be  that  in  a  season  of  very 
favorable  weather  and  abundance  of  moisture  in  the  soil,  the  commercial  fertilizers 
will  have  their  best  effects,  even  if  there  is  no  humus  or  vegetable  decay  present. 
But  in  a  season  like  the  one  we  have  just  passed  through,  we  have  found  in  late 
October,  in  a  soil  deficient  in  humus,  all  the  fertilizer  applied  in  the  furrow,  as  dry 
as  it  was  when  applied.  Not  two  hundred  feet  away  was  land  in  which  the  humus 
content  was  much  greater,  and  here  the  plants  had  gotten  the  dissolved  plant  food, 
because  of  the  superior  mosture-retaining  nature  of  the  decayed  vegetable  matter. 
Therefore,  even  if  this  decay  furnished  us  no  nitrogen,  it  would  still  be  valuable 
for  its  mechanical  effects  in  making  the  soil  mellow,  and  in  its  power  of  retaining 
moisture  for  the  plants.  What  we  try  to  impress  upon  our  readers  in  this  book, 
above  all  else,  is  the  fact  that  the  true  use  of  the  commercial  fertilizer  is  the  main- 
tenance and  increase  of  the  fertility  and  productiveness  of  the  soil,  and  not  so 
much  for  the  immediate  returns  in  sale  crops.  True  farming  does  not  consist 
in  the  dosing  of  the  soil  for  every  crop  with  a  prescription  some  land  doctor 
advises  as  a  specific  for  that  crop,  but  in  so  using  these  valuable  plant  foods  in  the 


14  -  In  tkod  u  ction  . 

improvement  of  the  soil  that  there  will  be  no  need  in  any  of  our  ordinary  farm 
cropping  for  the  use  of  what  is  called  a  complete  fertilizer  at  any  time,  and 
seldom  any  need  for  an  application  directly  to  the  sale  crop.  Used  in  this  way, 
there  is  no  doubt  that  the  fertility  of  the  soil  can  be  restored  and  maintained 
more  cheaply  and  more  rapidly  by  the  use  of  commercial  fertilizers  than  in  any 
other  way,  though  no  farmer  should  wholly  ignore  the  foundation  of  all  rational 
farm  improvement,  the  keeping  and  feeding  of  live  stock  in  the  best  manner,  and 
the  making  and  saving  in  the  most  careful  manner  all  the  domestic  manures.  The 
deplorable  condition  of  much  of  the  cotton  land  in  the  South  is  due,  not  only  to 
the  injudicious  use  of  commercial  fertilizers  as  a  means  of  getting  sale  crops,  but 
to  the  entire  abandonment  of  stock  feeding  by  the  cotton  farmers.  The  annual 
cultivation  of  the  soil  in  the  one  clean  cultivated  crop  has  used  up  the  humus  and 
none  goes  there,  because  there  are  no  animals  fed  to  make  manure  and  no  renovat- 
ing crops  between  the  cotton  crops,  and  when  a  dry  season  comes,  the  fertilizers 
applied  are  not  dissolved  and  the  crops  are  poor.  The  season  of  1900  was  remark- 
able as  the  hottest  and  dryest  on  record  in  the  South  Atlantic  States,  and  the 
lands  without  fertilizer  did  as  well  or  better  than  those  directly  fertilized.  But 
recently,  meeting  a  farmer  whom  I  knew  was  farming  in  a  short  rotation  with 
legumes,  I  asked  him  about  his  cotton  crop.  "I  expected  to  get  40  bales  on  35 
acres.  The  drought  has  affected  me  some,  and  I  will  have  hardly  more  than  35 
bales."  All  around  this  man's  farm  there  are  those  who  will  hardly  get  a  bale 
on  five  acres,  and  they  spent  more  for  fertilizers  on  their  crop  than  he  did,  who 
gets  a  bale  per  acre.  It  is,  therefore,  with  the  earnest  hope  that  we  can  induce 
farmers  North  and  South,  to  understand  the  true  use  of  commercial  fertilizers 
that  this  book  has  been  prepared.  We  have  written  it  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
practical  farmer,  and  have  prepared  it  for  practical  farmers. 

While  living  in  the  South,  a  native  of  the  South,  and  striving  with  all  my 
energy  to  aid  in  the  building  up  of  the  agricultural  and  horticultural  interests 
of  the  southern  cultivators  of  the  soil,  the  writer  has  had  a  wide  experience  in  the 
growing  of  plants  and  crops  in  various  sections,  and  has  traveled  and  studied  the 
practices  of  growers  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  He  therefore  feels  that  he  is 
prepared  to  help  farmers  in  various  sections,  and  to  contribute  something,  at 
least,  to  the  general  advancement.  The  great  interest  that  has  been  awakened  in 
regard  to  agricultural  education  is  well  shown  by  the  great  increase  of  books  on 
agricultural  topics.  Formerly  the  effort  was  to  treat  of  the  whole  subject  of  agri- 
culture and  farm  economy  in  a  single  small  volume,  and  our  libraries  still  contain 
some  of  those  little  books.  In  the  organization  of  our  Colleges  of  Agriculture  and 
Mechanic  Arts  the  greatest  difficulty  that  beset  the  faculty  in  these  institutions  was 
the  total  absence  of  books  on  agriculture  and  horticulture  that  could  be  used 
as  text  books  with  the  college  classes.  The  result  was  that  every  professor  was 
compelled  to  prepare  his  own  lectures  and  to  conduct  the  instruction  along  lines 
devised  from  time  to  time  to  meet  the  emergency.  Out  of  this  work  there  have 
grown  up  books  in  which  various  parts  of  scientific  cropping  are  treated,  and  there 
is  no  longer  any  effort  made  to  combine  in  one  small  volume  all  the  matters  that 
relate  to  cropping,  stock  breeding  and  feeding,  farm  drainage  and  soil  manipula- 
tion; but  the  soil  and  its  treatment  and  cropping  have  come  to  be  considered  as 
something  separate  and  distinct  from  the  animal  husbandry  of  the  farm.     While 


Introduction.  15 

in  a  work  of  this  kind  methods  of  soil  preparation  and  culture  are  of  necessity 
treated,  to  some  extent,  the  chief  aim  of  the  book  will  be  to  make  plain  so  far  as 
has  been  ascertained,  the  methods  of  supplying  the  manurial  needs  of  crops,  and 
especially  to  endeavor  to  do  something  towards  encouraging  a  more  judicious  use 
of  the  commercial  fertilizers  than  is  common  among  farmers.  Few  northern 
farmers  fully  realize  to  what  extent  the  southern  farmer  has  come  to  rely  upon 
commercial  fertilizers  for  every  crop  he  plants.  And  it  is  important  that  in  the 
interest  that  is  now  being  taken  in  the  Central  West  in  the  use  of  commercial 
fertilizers,  that  the  farmers  be  protected  from  making  the  mistakes  that  have 
proved  disastrous  to  the  southern  farmer,  and  that  they  should  be  taught  in  the 
beginning  of  their  use  of  these  fertilizers,  where  and  how  they  may  be  made 
profitable,  and  how  to  avoid  the  dangers  of  soil  wasting  that  have  followed  hard 
upon  the  use  of  commercial  fertilizers  in  the  cotton  states.  The  poorest  farmers 
and  the  best  farmers  use  commercial  fertilizers.  The  first-class  dribbles  them 
in  small  quantity  under  his  sale  crop,  solely  for  the  purpose  of  getting  a  little 
more  to  sell;  the  second  class  uses  them  in  a  far  more  liberal  manner  for  the  pur- 
pose of  building  up  the  soil  and  the  development  of  its  natural  capacity.  The 
first  class  of  farmers  simply  use  enough  to  add  a  little  to  what  the  land  would  do 
unaided,  and  thus  get  what  the  soil  would  do  and  all  that  the  fertilizer  did,  and 
the  result  is  that  the  soil  is  in  a  worse  condition  by  reason  of  the  application;  and 
it  is  no  wonder  that  the  men  who  use  these  forms  of  plant  food  in  this  way  have 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  they  are  only  stimulants.  The  greatest  educational 
influence  of  late  years  among  farmers  who  have  passed  the  years  when  they  could 
have  attended  a  college,  has  been  the  Farmers'  Institutes.  When  these  Institutes 
were  first  inaugaurated  farmers  as  a  class  knew  little  about  the  chemistry  of  the 
fertilizers  they  used,  and  regarded  that  the  best  which  smelled  the  worst.  Since 
the  Institutes  and  the  Grange  have  been  getting  in  their  work  there  has  been  a 
wonderful  change  in  this  respect,  and  the  farmer  who  does  not  know  something 
about  the  chemical  composition  of  the  fertilizers  he  uses,  and  the  nature  of  the 
elements  entering  into  them,  is  as  rare  as  one  who  did  know  these  things  was 
at  one  time.  These  educational  influences  have  also  brought  about  a  change 
in  other  respects.  Farmers,  as  a  class,  have  now  a  greater  respect  for  what 
they  formerly  ridiculed  as  "book  farming,"  and  today  it  is  only  the  grossly 
ignorant  among  the  farmers  who  fail  to  realize  what  scientific  study  and  investi- 
gation have  done  for  the  farmer.  Another  educational  influence  that  has  been 
brought  to  bear  upon  the  farmer  is  the  Agricultural  Experiment  Station.  The 
whole  modern  system  of  spraying  for  the  prevention  of  fungous  diseases  in  plants 
and  to  ward  off  the  attacks  of  noxious  insects,  has  been  brought  about  through 
the  work  of  the  Experiment  Stations,  and  on  no  subject  of  interest  to  the  farmer 
have  the  Stations  devoted  more  attention  than  to  the  study  of  the  various  forms 
of  plant  food  sold  as  fertilizers,  their  composition  and  value.  Before  the 
inauguration  of  these  Stations  the  farmer  was  at  the  mercy  of  the  compounder 
of  fertilizers,  and  had  no  means  for  ascertaining  their  real  value.  With  the  in- 
auguration of  the  Experiment  Stations  and  their  analyses  of  these  mixtures  came 
the  passage  of  stricter  laws  regulating  the  sale  of  fertilizers  and  protecting  not 
only  the  farmer,  but  the  honest  fertilizer  manufacturer,  from  the  frauds  that 
were  formerly  so  common.     The  result  of  all  these  influences  is  that  farmers  who 


16  Introduction. 

never  had  the  advantages  of  a  scientific  training  have  been  taught  to  understand 
what  is  necessary  in  a  good  fertilizer,  and  are  rapidly  learning  that  they  can 
make  these  mixtures  themselves  as  easily  as  to  buy  them  ready  mixed,  and  can 
save  money  in  so  doing.  Then,  too,  the  result  of  the  publication  of  the  analyses 
of  commercial  fertilizers  has  had  the  effect  of  driving  from  the  market  inferior 
articles  and  of  improving  the  general  standard  of  the  factory-made  fertilizers, 
and  in  States  having  a  good  and  well  enforced  fertilizer  control,  the  farmers  are 
now  protected  from  rogues,  and  the  honest  manufacturers  are  not  compelled  to 
compete  with  them.  We  have  urged  the  home  mixing  of  fertilizers  upon  our 
farmers,  not  from  any  antagonism  to  the  manufacturers  of  fertilizers,  but  because 
we  know  that  in  the  thoughtless  purchase  of  ready  mixed  articles,  growers  are 
continually  buying  what  they  do  not  need  to  buy,  and  getting  mixtures  poorly 
adapted  to  their  soil  and  crops,  though  they  may  be  manufactured  with  perfect 
accuracy  and  honesty.  No  one  mixture  will  suit  all  parts  of  the  same  farm,  or 
all  the  crops  grown  upon  it,  and  the  farmer  will  thus  be  compelled  to  buy 
various  brands  in  order  to  get  what  he  needs.  But  if  he  buys  the  materials  and 
mixes  them  to  suit  his  soils  and  crops  he  can  buy  the  whole  in  larger  quantity  and 
at  a  lower  price.  The  fact  has  more  than  once  been  demonstrated  at  the  Experi- 
ment Stations,  that  one  may  buy  at  retail  the  various  materials  that  enter  into  a 
commercial  fertilizer,  and  save  money  from  the  price  he  would  have  to  pay  for 
factory  mixed  goods.  This  book,  being  written  by  a  farmer,  for  the  benefit  of 
farmers,  will  advocate  what  its  author  believes  to  be  the  best  interest  of  the  farmer, 
without  regard  to  what  others  may  think  of  what  we  write.  It  will,  as  I  have 
said,  treat  the  subject  of  cropping  and  feeding  crops  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
practical  farmer  in  full  sympathy  with  the  work  of  scientific  investigation. 

Having  been  more  or  less  connected  with  the  practical  carrying  out  of  Station 
Investigations  in  agriculture  and  horticulture,  since  the  foundation  of  the  Experi- 
ment Stations,  the  author  of  this  book  has  had  exceptional  opportunities  for  study 
and  observation;  and  these  apportunities,  added  to  his  long  experience  as  a 
practical  cultivator  of  the  soil  in  farm,  garden  and  greenhouse,  enables  him  to 
write  with  some  confidence  for  the  benefit  of  those  who,  like  him,  are  endeavoring 
to  win  bread  from  the  soil.  The  original  design  was  simply  to  make  the  work  a 
reference  book  on  the  use  of  fertilizers  for  the  general  farmer.  But  it  is  difficult 
to  write  of  the  use  of  fertilizers  without  going  somewhat  into  details  of  cultural 
methods;  and  then,  too,  the  market  gardener,  the  orchardist,  the  florist  and  the 
winter  forcer  of  products  under  glass,  are  all  interested  in  the  use  of  commercial 
fertilizers.  Hence  the  idea  of  the  work  has  grown  so  as  to  include  some  of  the 
work  of  each,  and  our  hope  is  that  all  will  find  it  a  valuable  book  of  reference. 
So  far  as  the  garden  crops  and  the  work  under  glass  are  concerned,  special 
attention  is  paid  to  the  needs  of  the  market  gardeners  of  the  South  Atlantic 
and  Southern  States,  since  the  work  of  the  gardener  in  the  North  will  be  more 
fully  discussed  by  those  actually  engaged  in  the  business  there. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  AIR. 

All  plants  and  animals  pass  their  lives  at  the  bottom  of  the  great  ocean 
of  air  that  surrounds  the  earth.  From  this  air  plants  derive  by  far  the 
greater  part  of  their  substance.  Pure  air  is  a  mixture  of  two  invisible  gases, 
nitrogen  and  oxygen.  The  nitrogen  is  for  the  purpose  of  diluting  the  oxygen 
so  that  animals  can  breathe  it.  But  the  two  gases  are  not  combined  with 
each  other.  The  nitrogen  is  called  free  nitrogen  because  it  is  perfectly  free 
from  any  combination  with  other  elements,  but  in  order  that  plants  can  use 
it  it  must  become  so  combined.  But  of  this  later.  We  have  said  that  plants 
derive  the  greater  part  of  their  substance  from  the  air.  In  fact  about  95 
per  cent,  of  every  plant  comes  from  the  air,  or  to  speak  more  correctly,  from 
matters  that  exist  as  an  impurity  in  the  air.  For  while  pure  air  is  composed 
of  the  two  gases  mentioned,  there  are  always  more  or  less  of  other  gases  in  it, 
not  as  essential  parts  of  the  air  for  animal  life,  but  as  impurities  and  detri- 
mental to  animals.  But  with  plants  the  case  is  very  different.  One  of  the 
impurities  in  the  air  is  the  gas  called,  commonly,  carbonic  acid,  and  which 
is  known  to  the  chemist  as  carbon-di-oxide ;  that  is,  it  consists  of  two  parts 
of  oxygen  associated  and  combined  with  one  part  of  carbon.  This  carbon- 
di-oxide  is  the  gas  that  accumulates  in  old  wells  and  mines  and  makes  what 
is  called  choke  damp,  so  deadly  to  animal  life.  But  there  is  always  a  minute 
portion  of  it  in  the  air  everywhere,  and  while  an  excess  is  damaging  to  animal 
life  a  small  portion  is  essential  to  the  welfare  of  all  plants  that  make  green 
leaves. 

HOW  GREEN  LEAVED  PLANTS  GET  FOOD  FROM  THE  AIR. 

All  growth  in  plants  and  animals  alike,  is  made  by  the  increase  in  number 
and  the  development  of  certain  microscopic  boxes  known  as  cells.  A  very 
thin  cross  section  of  a  piece  of  the  pith  of  the  elder  will  show  the  primary 

(17) 


18 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

structure  of  plant  cells  under  a  glass  of  small  magnifying  power.  There  are 
many  plants  of  minute  size  existing  in  water  that,  during  all  their  lives,  con- 
sist of  but  a  single  box  or  cell.  Then  advancing  in  complexity  we  find  these 
cells  strung  together  in  threads,  then  in  flat  surfaces  in  a  single  layer,  and 
finally  arranged  in  numerous  forms  circling  around  the  stem  of  the  plant 
to  make  up  the  structure.  We  are  so  accustomed  to  look  upon  a  tree  as  an 
individual  existence  that  it  is  hard  to  realize  that  it  is  really  a  great  com- 
munity of  individuals,  each  doing  its  work  in  the  way  it  was  set  out  to  do 
in  the  beginning  and  never  making  any  mistake  about  it.  It  is  hard  to  realize 
too,  that  the  framework  of  the  great  oak  is  a  lifeless  thing,  around  which 
life  circles  in  a  myriad  of  forms,  while  it  has  entirely  abandoned  its  finished 
work,  and  that  the  central  heart  wood  .takes  no  part  whatever  in  the  vital 
functions  of  the  tree,  but  is  merely  the  mechanical  support  of  tHfe  army  of 
builders  which,  year  after  year,  add  thickness  to  its  stem  and  wider  spread 
to  its  branches.  This  heart  may  entirely  decay  and  the  tree  become  hollow, 
and  the  life  still  continue  to  circle  around  it. 

Hence  it  is  important  to  know  more  of  the  structure  and  functions  of 
plants  in  order  to  fully  understand  their  needs.  We  have  said  that  all  growth 
is  made  by  the  multiplication  of  these  little  box-like  cells.  The  tree  grows 
like  a  building,  in  which  brick  after  brick  is  placed  in  the  walls.  But  in 
the  case  of  the  plant  the  brick  maker  and  the  mason  live  inside  the  brick. 
The  walls  of  the  cells  contain  no  life,  but  are  the  result  of  the  vital  forces 
contained  within  them.  Every  plant  cell  in  its  growing  state  is  filled  with  the 
substance  that  carries  life  with  it.  This  substance  has  been  given  the  name 
of  protoplasm,  or  the  first  thing  formed.  It  is  a  clear  semi-fluid  substance, 
partly  granular  and  partly  transparent,  and  uniform  in  its  appearance.  This 
substance,  resembling  the  white  of  an  egg  more  than  anything  else,  does 
all  the  work  of  the  plant,  and  it  is  what  in  the  composition  of  the  plant  is 
called  by  chemists  the  albumenoid  or  protein  part.  It  is  itself  entirely 
formless,  and  yet  this  formless  substance  controls  the  shape  of  the  cell  that 
encloses  it,  and  makes  the  wonderful  variety  of  forms  of  cells  that  we  find  in 
the  plant  by  the  aid  of  our  microscopes,  and  little  by  little  builds  up  the  form 
of  the  plant,  always  with  an  unerring  accuracy,  so  that  the  final  result  is  such 
that  we  recognize  the  plant  as  belonging  to  a  certain  genus  and  species, 
though  it  may  be,  and  probably  is,  in  some  minor  points  unlike  every  other 
plant,  even  of  the  same  species. 

But  as  to  the  essential  features,  the  protoplasm  never  makes  any  mistake. 
The  oak  may  grow  beside  the  pine,  and  their  roots  interlock  and  feed  upon  the 
same  substances  in  the  soil,  while  their  tops  are  bathed  in  the  same  sunlight. 
But  the  oak  never  by  any  chance  makes  a  pine  cell,  nor  the  pine  an  oak  cell; 


The  AiE— 19 

though  no  one  can  discern  any  difference  in  the  living  matter  of  the  two. 
Each  follows  the  laws  of  its  inheritance,  and  obeys  the  order  set  out  for  it  in 
creation. 

I  have  said  that  this  living  matter  inside  the  plant  cells  is  partly  of  a 
granular  nature.  Some  of  these  grains  are  colored  green,  and  thus  give  us 
the  green  color  of  vegetation.  This  green  color  is  a  very  important  matter, 
for  without  it  there  could  be  no  growth.  We  may  put  a  plant  in  darkness 
and  blanch  the  leaves  white,  and  then  examine  the  grains  under  the  micro- 
scope and  we  find  that  they  are  still  there,  but  the  green  color  is  gone,  and  the 
plant  stops  growing.  It  is  evident  then  that  the  green  is  of  importance  to  the 
growth  of  the  plant.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  substance  that  enables  the  plant  to  get 
the  food  it  needs  from  the  carbon-di-oxide  in  the  air. 

Every  leaf  has  on  its  surface  a  mutitude  of  small  valves,  opening  and 
closing  like  a  pair  of  lips,  and  they  are  really  the  mouths  through  which  it 
takes  in  food.  These  mouths  are  far  more  plentiful  on  the  under  sides  of 
leaves  than  on  the  upper,  and  in  some  plants  there  are  none  at  all  in  the  upper 
surface.  The  interior  of  the  leaf  is  made  up  of  a  loose  aggregation  of  cells 
containing  the  green  granules.  The  mouths  open  in  among  the  spaces  be- 
tween these  loosely  arranged  cells,  and  thus  bring  the  air  to  the  interior  of 
the  leaf.  When  the  sun  is  shining,  and  at  no  other  time,  these  mouths  in 
the  leaf  are  wide  open.  The  air  enters  the  leaf  laden  with  the  carbon-di-oxide. 
If  the  temperature  around  is  proper  for  the  growth  of  that  particular  plant, 
the  green 'matter  at  once  decomposes  the  carbon-di-oxide,  separating  the  car- 
bon from  the  oxygen.  The  oxygen  is  then  thrown  off  to  purify  the  air,  and 
the  carbon  is  retained  by  the  plant.  We  do  not  know  that  this  identical 
oxygen  is  that  which  is  thrown  off,  but  we  do  know  from  experiment  that  the 
same  amount  of  oxygen  is  thrown  off  as  was  combined  with  the  carbon. 

Now  in  the  wonderful  laboratory  of  the  green  leaf,  begins  the  work  of  the 
living  matter.  From  the  roots  water  has  been  brought  up  to  the  leaves,  in 
which  is  dissolved  the  various  forms  of  plant  food  that  come  from  the  soil. 
As  it  comes  from  the  roots  it  is  merely  water  with  plant  food  dissolved  in  it. 
With  this  water,  and  the  carbon  that  has  been  gotten  from  the  air  through  the 
leaf  mouths,  the  living  matter  goes  to  work  to  prepare  food  for  its  own  suste- 
nance, and  to  make  the  materials  out  of  which  it  builds  its  cell  walls,  and 
thickens  their  woody  structure.  The  first  thing  formed  from  the  carbon, 
hydrogen  and  oxygen,  is  probably  some  form  of  sugar  for  the  immediate  use 
of  the  plant.  But  the  living  matter  works  rapidly,  and  makes  more  material 
than  it  can  use  at  once,  either  for  food  or  building  walls,  and  hence  it  has  to 
store  the  reserve  material.  This  reserve  material  is  the  first  thing  we  can  dis- 
cover in  the  leaf,  and  it  is  starch.     When  starch  is  made  in  the  leaf  it  is  soon 


20 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

carried  away  and  stored  for  future  use,  unless  at  once  needed  to  build  walls 
with.  It  is  stored  in  roots,  in  underground  tubers  like  the  Irish  potato,  and 
in  stems  generally,  and  in  seeds.  The  surplus  over  what  the  plant  needs  for 
its  existence,  forms  what  animals  consume  as  food.  In  some  seeds,  the  starch 
is  further  transformed  into  oil  for  preservation.  Xow  neither  starch  nor  oil 
are  direct  plant  food,  but  they  are  stored  in  the  seed  for  the  future  use  of  the 
germinating  plant,  as  they  will  keep  unchanged,  while  sugar,  the  food,  will 
not  keep.  But  when  a  seed  germinates  another  wonderful  change  takes 
place.  A  fermentive  principle  is  formed,  which  has  the  power  to  transform 
the  oil  back  into  starch,  and  from  starch  into  glucose,  or  grape  sugar,  which 
can  be  used  directly  by  the  living  matter  as  food,  and  as  material  for  building 
up  structure,  until  the  green  leaves  are  formed  and  the  roots  begin  to  absorb 
matter  from  the  soil. 

During  the  time  the  seed  has  been  dry,  the  living  matter  has  simply  been 
dormant,  waiting  for  the  coming  of  water  under  a  proper  temperature  with 
the  oxygen  of  the  air,  to  render  it  once  more  active.  There  is  a  great  differ- 
ence in  the  length  of  time  during  which  the  living  matter  will  retain  its 
vitality  in  a  dormant  state.  Some  seeds  lose  their  vitality  as  soon  as  they  be- 
come completely  air  dry;  others  will  retain  their  vitality  for  a  year,  while  still 
others  will  remain  dormant  for  a  number  of  years,  and  will  grow  as  soon  as 
the  proper  conditions  of  moisture  ,  heat  and  air  are  present.  Elsewhere  will 
be  found  a  table  showing  the  length  of  time  different  seeds  are  good. 


HOW  PLANTS  GET  FOOD  FROM  THE  SOIL. 

Put  several  layers  of  damp  blotting  paper  in  a  glass  jar  or  tumbler,  and 
on  it  place  several  beans,  and  then  cover  with  a  piece  of  glass,  so  as  to  retain 
moisture.  In  a  few  days  the  beans  will  germinate,  and  begin  to  throw  out 
long  white  roots. 

Now  examine  these  roots.  You  will  find  that  the  extreme  tip  of  the 
rootlet  is  of  rather  a  conical  shape  and  is  smooth  and  naked,  while  a  little  back 
from  the  tip  a  magnifying  glass  of  moderate  power  will  show  you  that  the  sur- 
face of  the  root  is  covered  with  a  thick  coat  of  fine  velvety  hairs.  These  root 
hairs  are  the  organs  through  which  the  plant  absorbs  water  from  the  soil. 
Their  extreme  fineness  precludes  the  possibility  of  anything  being  absorbed 
that  is  not  in  a  state  of  complete  solution,  as  all  solid  particles  must  of  course, 
be  strained  out.  The  mineral  food  of  the  plant  is  dissolved  in  the  soil  water, 
and  is  sucked  by  the  root  hairs  from  the  watery  films  that  surround  each 
particle  of  the  soil.     In  order  that  they  shall  do  this,  it  is  essential  that  the 


The  Air — 21 

particles  of  the  soil  shall  be  in  a  state  of  fine  pulverization,  whereby  its  power 
of  retaining  moisture  is  greatly  increased.  Prof.  King,  in  his  work  on  the 
soil,  illustrated  this  in  the  following  way: 

A  marble,  dipped  in  water,  will  retain  around  it  a  film  of  water.  If  it 
is  broken  in  two  there  will  be  an  increase  of  surface  to  hold  a  film  of  water, 
and  if  it  is  pulverized,  there  will  be  a  marvellous  increase  in  the  number  of 
particles,  each  having  a  film  of  water  around  it. 

These  root  hairs  are  produced  on  a  short  part  of  the  rootlet  just  back  of 
the  tip  as  fast  as  the  tip  is  projected  into  the  soil,  and  as  the  root  back  of  them 
grows  older,  and  the  cell  walls  thicken,  the  root  hairs  die  off,  and  that  part  of 
the  root  remains  simply  as  a  conduit  for  the  water  the  root  hairs  are  gathering 
beyond. 

In  this  way,  the  root  hairs  are  being  continually  formed  in  fresh  soil  and 
are  foraging  in  new  pastures.  It  should  be  easy  then  to  understand  that 
where  a  little  fertilizer  or  manure  is  placed  only  in  the  hill,  the  roots  soon  get 
beyond  it,  and  the  feeding  organs,  the  root  hairs,  are  hunting  for  food  in 
poorer  soil. 

But  the  root  tip  itself  is  one  of  the  most  admirably  contrived  parts  of  the 
whole  plant.  The  extreme  point  of  every  rootlet  is  a  little  older  than  the  part 
just  behind  it.  In  other  words,  the  actual  growing  tip  of  the  rootlet  is  a 
group  of  young  forming  cells  under  the  protection  of  a  root  cap.  At  this 
growing  point  new  cells  are  formed  to  continue  the  elongation  of  the  root, 
and  to  add  to  the  structure  of  the  root  cap  from  beneath,  so  that  the  root  cap 
is  always  being  renewed  from  behind,  as  it  is  pushed  through  the  soil  by  the 
elongation  of  the  root  behind  it,  and  protects  the  young  forming  cells  beneath 
it.  It  is  easy  to  see  that  this  is  an  admirable  provision  for  the  protection  of 
the  point  of  growth.  In  the  older  botanical  works,  it  was  stated  that  the  ex- 
treme tips  of  the  roots  were  what  they  called  "spongioles,"  and  it  was  supposed 
that  the  work  of  absorption  was  carried  on  by  the  "spongioles."  Having  now- 
adays better  microscopes,  we  have  learned  that  there  are  no  "spongioles"  at 
all,  but  that  the  protecting  root  cap  goes  ever  ahead  of  the  advancing  rootlet 
to  search  out  the  way,  and  to  guide  the  root  into  fresh  food.  There  seems  to 
be  a  sort  of  dull  sensitiveness  in  the  root  cap,  by  which  it  is  in  a  measure  en- 
abled to  choose  its  way  among  the  particles  of  the  soil.  The  roots  branch  in 
an  irregular  sort  of  a  manner,  and  not  after  the  regularity  of  the  branches 
above  the  ground,  each  branch  coming  out  from  the  central  core  of  the  rootlet, 
and  carrying  with  it  a  portion  of  the  outer  bark  as  its  first  root  cap,  and  then 
the  branches  form  root  hairs  just  as  the  main  rootlets  do. 

The  root  hairs  seem  to  have  the  power,  by  some  sort  of  secretion,  to 
attach  themselves  firmly  to  the  particles  of  the  soil  and  suck  moisture  from 


22 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

them.  If  you  sprout  a  seed  in  sand,  and  when  the  roots  have  developed,  take 
it  carefully  from  the  sand  and  gently  wash  the  roots,  you  will  find  that  the 
root  hairs  are  covered  with  fine  particles  of  the  sand,  closely  adhering  to  them. 
This  close  adhesion  of  the  root  hairs  enables  them  to  absorb  all  the  moisture 
that  surrounds  the  soil  particles  as  a  film,  and  enables  them  to  get  an  amount 
of  moisture  from  an  apparently  dry  soil,  that  is  surprising  to  those  who  have 
not  studied  that  matter  closely.  There  is  also  evidence  that  the  root  hairs  do 
to  some  extent,  exert  a  solvent  influence  on  matters  in  soil  otherwise  insoluble. 


THE  COURSE  OE  THE  SOIL  WATER  IN  THE  PLANT. 

There  is  a  direct  connection  between  the  roots  branching  in  the  soil,  with 
their  myriad  of  absorbing  hairs,  and  the  leaves  on  the  top  of  the  plant.  In 
our  trees  and  woody  plants,  this  course  is  through  the  youngest  sap  wood,  and 
in  herbaceous  plants  like  corn,  it  is  through  the  pithy  soft  tissue.  Anyone 
who  has  observed  a  corn  stalk,  has  seen  that  through  the  soft  part  of  the  stalk 
there  are  a  multitude  of  threads.  Observing  a  cross  section  of  the  com  stalk 
under  the  microscope,  we  see  that  these  threads  are  really  tubes,  or  elongated 
cells,  with  thickened  walls,  and  in  the  growing  state  of  the  plant,  the  walls  of 
these  cells  are  always  saturated.  As  the  leaves  branch  off,  some  of  these  tubu- 
lar threads  branch  into  the  leaves  and  form  the  framework,  or  what  we  call  the 
veins  of  the  leaf.  It  is  through  these  fibres  that  the  sap  water  reaches  the 
leaves,  and  it  is  in  the  leaf  where  all  the  wonderful  changes  are  made  by  which 
new  material  for  growth  is  formed.  Then  after  the  material  for  growth  is 
made  it  is  carried  wherever  there  is  call  for  material  through  the  youngest 
cells  of  the  growing  bark,  and  all  the  material  for  growth  of  top  and  roots 
comes  from  the  leaves. 

Twist  a  wire  tightly  around  the  stem  of  a  growing  plant,  and  you  will 
see  that  the  growth  is  coming  downward  from  the  leaves.  The  stem  swells 
above  the  stricture,  and  if  it  is  long  continued  the  path  for  the  ascending  sap 
water  is  finally  cut  off,  and  the  branch  will  perish,  with  a  swollen  base 
formed  from  the  materials  that  were  taken  in  from  air  and  soil  before  the 
wire  was  placed  there. 

There  was  an  old  notion  that  the  sap  goes  up  in  the  spring  and  down  in 
the  fall.  The  fact  is,  that  there  is  no  circulation  in  plants  that  can  be  com- 
pared with  the  circulation  of  the  blood  in  animals.  The  sap  that  rises  in  the 
trees  in  the  spring  is  simply  sap  water  in  which  the  food  of  a  mineral  nature 
for  the  plant  and  the  nitrogen  for  the  living  matter  is  dissolved,  and  the 
only  descent  is  that  of  the  formed  material  for  growth. 


The  Air— 23 

This  sap  water,  when  it  comes  from  the  ground,  is  in  a  very  dilute  state ; 
and  another  function  of  the  valves  or  mouths  in  the  leaves,  is  to  evaporate 
water  into  the  air,  and  in  this  way,  to  condense  and  concentrate  the  food 
brought  from  the  soil.  This  evaporation  is  also  one  of  the  means  by  which 
the  water  is  pumped  up  from  below,  and  that  there  is  a  rapid  evaporation 
from  the  leaves  is  evidenced  when  we  cut  off  a  leafy  branch  and  note  how 
quickly  the  leaves  wilt  when  the  supply  is  cut  off. 

Wilting  of  the  leaves  is  also  one  of  nature's  methods  of  protecting  the 
plant.  During  the  hours  of  sunlight,  and  at  no  other  time,  the  mouths  in 
the  leaves  are  open  to  take  in  carbonic  acid.  But  if  the  heat  is  great  and  the 
soil  is  dry,  the  leaves  will  wilt,  and  this  at  once  closes  the  pores  or  mouths,  and 
checks  the  evaporation  until  the  plant  can  recover  a  supply  from  below. 


CHAPTER  II. 

TEE    GROWTH    OF    A    SEED. 

The  prime  object  of  the  plant's  existence  is  to  prepare  for  the  perpetuation 
of  its  kind.  In  some  plants,  the  whole  force  of  its  vitality  is  expended  in 
one  season,  in  the  production  of  a  large  crop  of  seed,  in  the  growth  of  which 
the  plant  is  exhausted,  and  it  perishes  after  the  seeds  are  formed.  Such 
plants  enduring  but  for  a  summer,  we  call  annuals. 

There  are  others  that  spend  the  first  year  of  their  existence  in  the  storing 
up  in  roots  a  great  accumulation  of  food,  which  they  exhaust  the  next  season 
in  the  production  of  seed,  and  they,  too,  then  perish.  These  are  called 
biennials,  or  two  year  plants.  Others  store  up  growth  of  larger  dimensions, 
year  after  year,  and  finally,  when  strong  and  well  matured,  give  some  of  the 
accumulated  vitality  to  the  production  of  fruit  and  seed,  and  continue  to  do 
so  for  many  years ;  some  for  hundreds  of  years,  having  a  rather  indefinite  term 
of  existence.  These  we  call  perennials,  or  plants  living  through  a  long  series 
of  years.  Still  another  class  accumulate  during  years  of  growth,  long  or 
short,  a  great  store  of  food,  and  finally  make  the  supreme  effort  of  their  lives 
in  the  production  of  a  vast  growth  of  flowers  and  fruit,  and  then  perish.  To 
this  class  belong  the  plants  known  as  Century  plants,  the  American  Agaves 
and  others. 

The  plants  that  farmers  depend  upon  for  crops  are  chiefly  the  annual  and 
biennial  classes. 

THE  FLOWER. 

The  flower  of  a  plant  is  considered  by  botanists  to  be  really  a  collection 
of  leaves,  changed  in  various  ways  to  serve  the  purpose  of  reproduction. 
Every  complete  flower  has  two  protecting  coats ;  the  outer  one  called  the  calyx 
is  commonly  green,  but  is  sometimes  brightly  colored.  The  inner  circle  of 
transformed  leaves  is  called  the  corolla,  and  its  separate  leaves  are  called 
petals  ,  while  those  of  the  calyx  are  called  sepals.  The  inner  circles  of  leaves 
are  still  further  transformed  so  as  to  make  stamens  and  'pistils.     On  the  sta- 

(24) 


The  Growth  of  a  Seed — 25 

mens  are  borne  certain  cells  that  open  by  valves,  and  which  contain  the  male 
element  of  the  flower  called  the  pollen.  The  central  set  of  transformed 
leaves  makes  what  is  called  the  pistil  or  female  organ  of  the  flower.  At  the 
lower  end  of  this  grows  the  seed  vessel,  or  ovary,  containing  the  ovules,  which 
are  to  be  transformed  into  seeds.  At  the  upper  end  of  the  pistil  is  a  variously 
shaped  organ  known  as  the  stigma,  which  is  naked  and  for  a  while  moist  on 
the  surface.  The  pollen,  or  male  element,  falls  on  this  and  swells  and  begins 
to  grow  into  a  tube  of  various  lengths,  according  to  the  character  of  the 
flower.  This  pollen  tube  passes  through  the  tissue  of  the  pistil  till  it  reaches 
the  ovary,  and  there  in  a  certain  cell  of  the  ovule  it  sets  up  a  new  growth  of 
cells,  that  gradually  take  on  the  form  of  a  miniature  plantlet,  and  form 
what  is  called  the  embryo,  or  germ,  of  the  seed.  In  this  seed  the  plant  then 
stores  up  starch  or  oil  sufficient  for  its  sustenance  till  in  its  germination  it 
can  make  green  leaves.  It  then  rapidly  parts  with  the  water  and  the  seed  be- 
comes ripe,  and  remains  dormant  until  brought  again  under  the  influence 
of  moisture,  warmth  and  the  oxygen  of  the  air. 

A  seed  then  is  a  living  organism  in  which  vitality  is  simply  suspended 
for  a  time,  and  which  contains  all  the  elements  of  a  future  plant  when  placed 
under  proper  conditions  for  growth.  If  it  has  these  conditions  it  will  grow. 
If  they  or  any  one  of  them  are  absent  it  will  remain  dormant  or  perish.  If  the 
seed  is  buried  so  deeply  that  the  oxygen  of  the  air  cannot  properly  affect  it, 
though  there  may  be  moisture  and  heat,  it  will  not  grow.  We  see  this  fre- 
quently in  the  case  of  clover  seeds  deeply  buried  in  the  soil,  which  grow  after 
they  have  again  been  turned  up  to  the  influence  of  the  air.  If  moisture  is 
absent,  the  living  matter  of  the  seed  cannot  swell  and  become  active,  and 
though  there  may  be  heat  and  oxygen  enough,  the  seed  cannot  grow. .  Then, 
too,  there  may  be  moisture  and  oxygen,  but  if  the  temperature  is  not  right 
for  that  particular  seed,  it  will  not  grow.  This  proper  temperature  varies 
with  different  seeds.  All  cultivators  know  that  some  seeds  need  more  heat 
than  others.  The  garden  pea  will  germinate  at  a  temperature  but  little  above 
the  freezing  point,  while  Indian  corn  subjected  to  the  same  conditions  will 
perish.  It  is  essential  then,  to  know  something  of  the  nature  of  the  seeds  we 
plant  so  that  we  may  give  them  the  proper  conditions  of  growth. 

THE  FRUIT. 

While  the  seed  is  the  final  result  of  the  plant's  effort  at  reproduction, 
the  fruit  is  the  ripened  vessel  or  ovary  which  contains  these  seeds.  The  pea 
pod  is  the  fruit  of  the  pea  plant,  and  is  simply  the  ripened  seed  vessel.  But 
there  are  some  plants  in  which  other  parts  are  commonly  known  as  the  fruit. 


26 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

In  the  apple,  the  ripened  seed  vessel,  or  core,  is  surrounded  by  the  thickening 
calyx  of  the  flower,  which  increases  in  size  after  the  petals  of  the  flower  fall, 
and  surround  the  fruit  proper,  which  we  call  the  core,  and  this  thickened 
calyx  is  what  we  use  as  the  fruit  of  the  apple  and  pear  and  quince.  In  the 
strawberry,  the  end  of  the  stem  on  which  the  fruits  are  borne,  swells  up  and 
carries  the  collection  of  little  fruits  up,  borne  on  its  outer  surface  in  little 
depressions.  We  call  this  edible  part  the  fruit,  while  the  botanist  calls  the 
seed  vessels  that  contain  the  seeds,  the  true  fruit.  The  edible  part  of  the 
strawberry  is  merely  the  swollen  receptacle  which  bore  the  flower. 

In  our  Indian  corn,  each  grain  that  we  call  a  seed  is  a  separate  fruit, 
the  result  of  the  ripening  of  the  ovary  of  the  pistil,  which  is  the  silk.  For 
every  grain  on  the  cob  is  the  result  of  a  single  female  flower,  and  each  grain 
has  its  own  silk,  and  if  each  silk  does  not  get  pollen  from  the  tassel,  or  male 
organ,  there  is  no  grain  formed.  Hence  we  can  easily  see  why  a  single  stalk 
of  corn  standing  in  a  field  seldom  makes  a  perfect  ear.  In  the  field  the  great 
cloud  of  pollen  that  floats  all  around  and  covers  the  ground  insures  the  fertili- 
zation or  impregnation  of  every  silk.  The  cereal  grains  then  are  ripened 
fruits  and  not  mere  seeds.  In  a  state  of  nature  the  plant  simply  stores  food 
enough  to  insure  the  growth  of  the  plantlet  for  a  while  after  germination. 
In  cultivation  the  effort  is  to  increase  this  store  that  it  may  be  made  use  of  by 
man  for  food  for  himself  and  domestic  animals.  Nature  is  content  with  mere 
reproduction ;  we  want  something  else.  Hence  to  keep  plants  up  to  a  greater 
production  of  useful  material,  it  is  necessary  that  we  should  accumulate  the 
desirable  qualities  by  constant  selection  of  those  that  show  the  greater  ten- 
dency to  make  what  we  want.  Nature  is  perfectly  content  with  a  wild  crab 
apple.  It  has  all  the  power  of  reproduction,  and  is  more  hardy  and  vigorous 
than  the  highly  developed  apple,  since  it  is  the  survival  in  the  struggle  with 
other  plants  of  like  character,  while  the  plants  we  would  choose  have  developed 
a  certain  desirable  character  for  our  use,  but  have  in  other  respects  gotten  less 
able  to  survive  in  a  struggle  with  wild  plants.  So  we  have  paid  attention 
to  the  accumulation  of  a  desirable  growth  of  the  edible  portion  of  the  apple, 
and  have  bred  it  away  from  the  original  wild  crab  into  something  we  want. 
But  turn  it  back  to  the  unaided  forces  of  nature  and  it  will  soon  revert  to  a 
form  adapted  to  survive  and  the  fruit  will  become  less  and  less  desirable  to 
man. 

We  find,  then,  that  the  more  we  refine  a  plant  and  fit  it  for  our  use  the 
more  it  needs  the  fostering  care  of  man,  and  the  less  able  it  is  to  take  care 
of  itself. 

The  wild  potato  of  Peru  and  Arizona  makes  small  underground  tubers, 
simply  enough  to  keep  a  portion  of  the  plant  with  buds  and  capable  of  grow- 


The  Growth  of  a  Seed — 27 

ing  again.  We  have  bred  the  cultivated  potato  into  the  habit  of  storing  larger 
quantities  of  starch  in  its  under  ground  tubers,  and  this,  too,  has  been  brought 
about  by  a  gradual  accumulative  selection  of  those  that  develop  this  habit 
to  the  greatest  extent.  Left  to  themselves,  there  is  a  constant  tendency  to 
revert  into  original  and  inferior  forms. 

Our  tomatoes  are  the  result  of  long  selection,  starting  with  a  cross  of  the 
smooth  and  hollow  forms  on  the  crooked  and  solid  fleshed  sorts,  we  have  by 
accumulative  selection  gotten  the  knobby  tomato  inside  the  smooth  skin  of 
the  hollow  one,  and  we  find  yet  that  it  is  hard  to  keep  it  there,  and  the  volun- 
teer plants  that  annually  come  up  in  the  garden  are  apt  to  revert  into  one 
or  the  other  of  the  original  forms. 


CHAPTER  3. 

PLANT  BREEDING. 

Many  people  imagine  that  the  new  and  improved  forms  of  garden  and 
field  plants  that  are  brought  out  by  our  enterprising  seedsmen  are  the  result 
of  some  sort  of  magical  hocus  pocus  of  crossing  or  hybridizing,  and  think 
that  by  taking  two  plants  that  have  characters  we  wish  to  combine  we  can, 
by  crossing  them,  at  once  obtain  the  combined  character  we  want.  The  fact 
is,  that  crossing  simply  gives  us  a  starting  point  from  which,  by  long  and 
careful  selection  towards  an  ideal  plant  we  may  have  in  mind,  we  may  finally 
reach  a  point  near  what  we  aimed  at.  The  new  varieties  introduced  by  the 
seedsmen,  when  they  are  really  new  and  valuable,  are  the  result  of  long  years 
of  careful  selection  through  which  hereditary  characters  have  been  formed 
that  may  be  expected  to  be  permanent  in  the  offspring.  The .  writer  once 
attempted  the  development  of  a  variety  of  sugar  corn  that  would  have  stamina 
enough  for  the  Southern  climate.  As  a  starting  point,  a  cross  was  made 
of  the  Leaming,  a  Western  field  corn  of  a  yellow  color,  on  the  Mammoth 
sugar,  a  large  eared,  late  sugar  corn  of  a  white  color.  The  first  result  of  the 
cross  was  to  cut  the  plant  loose  from  its  inherited  character,  and  the  ears  came 
sprinkled  all  over  with  white  wrinkled  grains,  yellow  wrinkled  grains,  white 
dent  grains  and  yellow  dent  grains.  We  assumed  that  the  yellow  wrinkled 
grains  were  the  ones  that  inherited  the  characters  of  both  parents.  Therefore 
we  selected  only  these  for  planting.  The  next  season  there  was  a  larger  pro- 
portion of  grains  that  had  this  character,  and  they  were  produced  on  a  plant 
of  a  sturdy,  yet  short  habit  and  just  the  style  of  plant  we  were  aiming  at.  The 
process  of  selection  was  carried  on  year  after  year  in  a  location  where  the 
plants  could  not  be  affected  by  pollen  from  any  other  corn.  But  it  required 
seven  years  of  careful  selection  before  we  could  establish  the  heredity  that 
caused  the  plant  uniformly  to  make  yellow  wrinkled  grains  all  over  the  ears. 

(28) 


Plant  Breeding — 29 

I  mention  this  to  show  that  the  making  of  an  improved  variety  of  any  plant 
that  is  reproduced  from  seed  is  not  a  sudden  thing,  but  must  be  the  result  of 
long  and  patient  effort.  But  it  is  an  effort  that  any  observant  farmer  can 
make  for  himself,  and  he  can  thereby  increase  the  value  of  his  crops  to  a  very 
marked  extent.  There  is  no  magic  about  it,  but  only  the  patient  working 
towards  an  ideal  well  formed  in  mind  to  which  we  wish  to  attain. 

But  in  all  plant  breeding  and  improvement  we  must  work  for  the  char- 
acter of  the  whole  plant  and  not  for  a  single  feature.  In  the  colder  sections 
of  our  country  plant  breeders  who  have  undertaken  the  improvement  of  the 
Indian  corn  have  been  compelled  to  take  earliness  of  ripening  into  account, 
and  hence  have  developed  a  character  that  is  not  essential  to  the  farmer  in 
the  more  southern  sections.  In  the  South  farmers  have  for  generations  been 
breeding  corn  simply  for  the  biggest  ear.  They  get  enormous  ears,  but  by 
taking  no  account  of  the  habit  of  the -plant,  they  have  developed  a  tall,  long- 
legged  corn  that  bears  but  a  single  ear  and  requires  a  greater  distance  in  plant- 
ing, and  hence  makes  a  small  product  per  acre.  Southern  improvers  of  the 
corn  plant  should  work  for  a  more  dwarf  and  sturdy  habit,  and  greater 
prolificacy.  In  other  words,  they  should  work  for  the  character  of  plant  they 
want  without  regard  to  whether  it  is  a  late  ripening  sort  or  not,  since  they 
have  time  enough  to  ripen  any.  But  the  Northern  improver  must  take  also 
the  quality  of  early  ripening  in  addition  to  the  character  of  the  plant 
and  its  prolificacy.  Breed  for  a  plant  suited  to  your  needs  and  not  for  one 
character  of  the  plant  alone.  But  it  is  not  the  corn  plant  alone  that  may  be 
improved  by  selection.  All  our  cereal  grains,  our  cotton,  tobacco  and  all 
other  plants  that  are  reproduced  from  seed,  will  yield  to  the  same  course  of 
treatment  and  may  be  immeasurably  improved.  But  to  keep  these  improved 
forms  to  their  standard  the  selection  must  be  carried  on  the  same  way  it  has 
been  done.  A  farmer  gets  an  improved  variety  of  corn,  which  has  been 
selected  on  a  certain  line.  He  finds  it  really  an  improved  variety.  But  he 
goes  at  once  to  work  selecting  seed  out  of  the  crib  as  he  has  always  done,  with- 
out reference  to  the  character  of  the  plant  that  bore  the  ear,  and  soon  he 
finds  that  the  corn  has  changed  its  character  and  is  no  longer  like  the  corn  he 
got,  and  he  concludes  that  the  improved  sorts  soon  run  out.  But  it  is  simply 
because  he  has  bred  it  on  a  different  line  from  that  by  which  it  was  originally 
developed.  He  has  worked  simply  for  a  big  ear  while  the  introducer  worked 
for  the  whole  plant. 

Another  point  to  be  observed  in  the  improvement  of  plants  is  to  remove 
them  from  disturbing  influences  around  them.  We  may  have  corn  which 
phows  very  nearly  the  character  which  we  wish  to  perpetuate,  and  it  is  sur- 
rounded by  stalks  that  have  produced  no  ear,  but  have  made  an  abundance  of 


30 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

pollen  on  the  tassel.  The  chances  then  are  that  the  seed  taken  from  the 
fine  stalk  will  have  been  crossed  by  the  inferior  ones,  and  will  take  more  of 
their  character  than  its  own.  Therefore,  in  saving  seed  corn,  we  should  make 
sure  that  none  of  the  barren  stalks  are  allowed  to  make  tassels  and  thus  to 
interfere  with  the  process  of  seed  improvement.  I  once  undertook  the  im- 
provement of  my  tomatoes.  I  found  one  plant  in  the  field  which  showed 
remarkable  productiveness  and  fine,  smooth  fruit.  It  was  surrounded  by 
rough  and  undesirable  plants.  If  I  had  taken  the  seed  from  this  plant  it 
would  have  been  crossed  by  inferior  kinds.  Therefore  I  made  cuttings  from 
it  late  in  the  fall  and  potted  them,  and  placed  them  in  the  greenhouse.  They 
were  there  cared  for  as  other  greenhouse  plants  are,  and  more  cuttings  were 
made  late  in  winter.  By  spring  time  I  had  plants  enough  to  set  a  considerable 
area  and  all  of  the  same  identical  habit,  and  could  now  save  the  seed  with 
some  certainty  of  getting  plants  more  nearly  like  the  original  than  if  I  had 
taken  seed  at  first.  These  seeds  were  sown  the  following  year  and  another 
selection  made  and  carried  over  from  cuttings,  and  in  a  few  years  I  had  a 
tomato  which  I  have  never  seen  excelled.  Unfortunately,  after  years  of  effort 
the  stock  was  lost  in  fire.  I  give  this  as  a  sample  of  what  may  be  done  by  in- 
telligent effort  with  almost  any  of  our  garden  vegetables  and  flowers.  There 
is  no  branch  of  cropping  either  in  field  or  garden,  more  interesting  and 
profitable  than  the  improvement  of  cultivated  varieties.  Form  in  mind  the 
ideal  plant  which  you  wish  to  produce  and  annually  select  seed  from  plants 
that  come  nearest  to  your  ideal  plant.  Never  select  for  a  single  character 
in  the  plant.  If  you  select  simply  for  big  ears  of  corn  you  may  get  the  big 
ears  along  with  other  undesirable  characters.  If  you  select  for  a  big  tomato, 
you  will  get  that,  but  it  may  be  unproductive  and  of  bad  shape.  In  plant 
breeding  we  must*  take  into  consideration  all  the  characters  we  wish  to  per- 
petuate in  the  plant,  and  try  to  breed  out  all  the  bad  features  by  avoiding 
them.  The  improved  tomato  of  today  is  the  result  of  long-continued 
crossing  and  selection,  for  the  purpose  of  getting  the  crooked,  but  solid  and 
meaty  Mexican  tomato  inside  the  smooth  skin  of  the  old  smooth,  but  hollow 
tomato.  It  is  always  trying  to  get  out,  apparently,  and  hence  constant 
selection  is  needed  to  keep  a  variety  near  the  type.  While  we  can,  to  a  certain 
extent,  get  plants  into  the  habit  of  coming  true  to  seed  it  requires  constant 
watchfulness  to  keep  them  so,  for  there  is  always  a  tendency  to  break  away 
from  the  inherited  form  and  to  sport  into  others.  A  break  of  this  sort  may 
be  an  advantage  and  a  starting  point  for  a  new  variety  found.  I  have  recently 
had  my  attention  called  to  a  curious  instance  of  this.  A  gentleman  has  a  tree 
of  the  old  Blood  peach,  which  has  for  years  borne  the  same  peach,  and  this 
peach  is  of  such  a  fixed  type  that  it  commonly  comes  true  when  raised  from 


Plant  Breeding — 31 

seed.  But  the  past  season,  the  tree  in  question  abandoned  its  habit  and  pro- 
duced a  crop  of  white  peaches  instead  of  the  typical  ones,  blood  red  to  the  seed. 
It  is  impossible  to  explain  the  cause  of  these  reversions,  or  "sports,"  as  the 
gardeners  call  them.  But  when  we  find  these  variations  from  the  normal 
type,  we  can  frequently  make  them  permanent  by  propagation.  Many  years 
ago,  at  Kenansville,  N.  C,  Kev.  Mr.  Sprunt  found  a  shoot  on  a  Safrano  rose 
bush  in  his  garden,  which  made  a  flower  of  a  lemon  yellow  color,  whereas  the 
Safrano  is  a  buff  colored  rose.  The  sporting  shoot  was  used  for  cuttings, 
and  from  this  variation  we  have  the  Isabella  Sprunt  rose.  Many  other  florist^s 
plants  have  originated  in  the  same  way. 

But  in  plants  that  are  annually  grown  from  the  seed,  it  is  necessary  to 
fix  by  selection  through  years,  the  hereditary  habit  of  coming  true  to  the 
desired  type.  It  is  in  this  way  that  the  races  or  strains  of  certain  plants  have 
become  established.  Carelessness  in  the  selection  of  seed  is  the  main  cause 
of  most  of  the  degeneration  of  type^that  bother  the  farmer.  He  gets  a  com 
or  a  wheat  of  a  certain  variety,  which  has  been  bred  to  its  present  state 
through  a  long  series  of  years,  by  selecting  towards  a  well  established  ideal 
plant  in  the  mind  of  the  grower.  When  he  has  brought  it  to  a  point  of  com- 
parative perfection  it  is  sent  out,  and  at  once  men  who  have  different  ideals 
or  none,  get  hold  of  it,  and  the  tendency  to  variation  which  all  plants  possess, 
starts  it  off  in  various  ways,  and  while  the  seed  lists  continue  to  give  the  name 
of  the  variety  the  seed  has  often  been  bred  away  from  the  original  type  in  to 
a  variety  of  forms.  A  neighbor  of  mine  many  years  ago,  sent  North  and  got 
seed  of  the  King  Phillip  corn,  a  variety  of  a  dark  brownish  yellow  color,  with 
a  small  cob  and  broad,  flat,  flinty  grains.  His  idea  was  to  get  an  early  ripen- 
ing corn  for  late  planting  on  the  low  lands  near  a  river  where  the  soil  did  not 
dry  out  early.  ♦  Under  his  mode  of  selection  the  com  has  assumed  an  entirely 
different  type,  and  the  only  point  in  which  it  now  resembles  the  King  Phillip 
is  its  color,  for  the  number  of  rows  on  the  ear  has  doubled,  and  the  corn  is  a 
dent  instead  of  a  flint,  and  is  now  more  similar  to  the  Leaming.  He  selected 
simply  for  the  largest  ears,  as  is  the  common  practice  among  the  majority 
of  farmers. 

Since  the  Indian  corn  is  more  susceptible  to  improvement  tha»  most  of 
the  crop  plants  grown  by  our  farmers  I  will  here  give  the  method  I  have 
heretofore  advised  in  regard  to  the  saving  of  seed  corn.  If  the  grower  is  in 
the  northern  limit  of  the  corn  belt,  he  will  have  to  pay  attention  to  the  earli- 
ness  of  the  variety  he  wishes  to  secure.  In  the  South  this  item  may  be 
entirely  ignored,  since  we  have  plenty  of  time  to  mature  any  com.  I  would 
begin  with  the  best  variety  attainable  in  the  section  where  the  corn  is  to  be 
grown,  for  it  is  far  better  to  start  with  an  acclimated  corn  than  to  get  a 


32 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

variety  from  north  or  south  of  the  locality.  Therefore  get  the  best  corn  in 
your  neighborhood,  and  plant  a  patch  especially  for  seed.  Give  it  the  best  of 
care  in  the  preparation  of  the  soil,  the  manuring  and  the  cultivation,  for  a 
complete  development  is  what  we  want  first.  Do  not  crowd  a  lot  of  plants 
in  one  hill,  but  plant  singly  in  the  rows.  Now  watch  the  corn  as  the  tassels 
first  show,  and  go  through  it  and  cut  out  every  tassel  before  it  ripens,  from 
every  hill  that  does  not  promise  to  make  an  ear;  for  these  barren  stalks  are 
strong  males  and  their  pollen  will  have  a  deleterious  influence  on  the  plants 
around  them.  Then,  as  the  crop  matures,  mark  the  stalks  that  come  nearest 
to  the  type  of  plant  you  are  after.  In  the  North,  have  an  eye  to  the  earliness  of 
the  plant  as  well  as  the  other  characteristics.  In  the  South  we  need  to  breed 
towards  a  shorter  and  more  sturdy  plant,  and  to  get  away  from  the  long- 
legged  style  so  common,  in  which  the  ears  are  almost  out  of  reach  and  are 
borne  singly  on  the  stalks.  Select  for  productiveness,  by  marking  only  those 
with  two  or  more  ears.  In  the  South,  select  for  the  seed  ear  the  lowest  one  on 
the  stalk,  and  this  will  generally  be  the  smallest  one,  but  it  will  inherit  a 
tendency  to  form  another  ear  above  it,  and  we  need  this  as  well  as  the  tendency 
to  grow  nearer  the  ground.     In  the  North  it  may  be  best  to  save  both  ears. 

From  the  corn  thus  saved  plant  not  only  your  entire  field,  but  another 
seed  patch,  and  on  this  seed  patch,  practice  the  same  plan  of  selection,  always 
keeping  in.  mind  the  ideal  plant  you  wish  to  establish.  As  the  number  of  ears 
on  the  plant  increase,  and  the  productiveness  of  the  variety  is  established,  we 
would  select  for  the  general  character  of  the  plant  year  after  year.  The 
southern  corn  has  become  long-legged  from  the  constant  practice  of  selecting 
the  largest  ears  in  the  crib.  These  large  ears  are  commonly  the  only  ones  on 
the  stalk,  are  usually  borne  high  above  the  ground,  may  have  been  surrounded 
in  the  field  by  a  multitude  of  barren  and  inferior  stalks,  and,  as  it  is  the 
pollen  around  the  plant,  rather  than  its  own,  which  sets  the  grains,  the  plant- 
ing of  the  big  ear  will  often  lead  to  disappointment.  If  every  farmer  paid 
the  proper  attention  to  the  selection  of  his  seed  corn,  the  crop  all  over  the 
country  would  be  immensely  increased  without  any  additional  acreage. 

The  cotton  farmer  in  like  manner  should  have  his  seed  patch  and  select 
for  the  ideal  cotton  plant,  and  not  merely  for  big  bolls ;  and  in  all  our  annual 
crops  plant  breeding  in  an  intelligent  manner  would  greatly  increase  the 
average  yield.  But  as  the  majority  of  farmers  will  not  undertake  this  work, 
it  leaves  a  wide  field  for  intelligent  effort  for  those  who  do,  for  they  will 
be  able  to  get  a  greatly  increased  price  for  their  well  bred  seed  from  those  who 
are  not  disposed  to  take  the  trouble.  Not  long  since  I  had  a  letter  from  a 
North  Carolina  farmer  saying  that  he  had  been  practicing  the  method  of 
saving  seed  corn  which  I  had  advised,  and  that  his  crop  had  increased  in  pro- 


Plant  Breeding — 33 

ductiveness  to  such  an  extent  that  his  neighbors  were  wanting  his  corn  for 
seed.  Such  is  always  the  case  with  the  improvement  of  any  of  our  crops, 
and  shows  that  the  reward  of  intelligent  effort  at  improvement  is  certain. 


IMPROVING  THE  COTTON  PLANT. 

There  is  no  plant  grown  by  our  farmers  which  will  yield  more  ready  re- 
sults from  intelligent  selection  and  breeding  than  the  cotton  plant,  and  there 
is  no  plant  grown  in  the  United  States  of  greater  commercial  importance. 
In  fact,  the  greater  part  of  our  foreign  commerce  is  founded  upon  the  fact 
that  we  lead  the  world  in  the  production  of  this  great  staple,  and  yet  there  is 
no  farm  plant  that  has  been  so  persistently  neglected  by  plant  breeders.  Of 
course  here  and  there  thoughtful  men  in  the  Cotton  States  have  done  much  for 
the  improvement  of  cotton  for  their  particular  section,  and  for  a  while  the 
varieties  produced  by  them  have  a  certain  popularity.  But  soon  the  careless 
methods  of  selection  among  cultivators  in  general,  change  the  character  of 
the  plant,  and  the  ideal  plant  towards  which  the  originator  was  working  is 
lost  sight  of  and  a  deterioration  is  the  result.  There  is  no  one  point  in  which 
there  is  greater  need  for  intelligent  effort  on  the  part  of  the  agriculturists 
of  the  Experiment  Stations  in  the  Cotton  States,  than  in  the  improvement  of 
varieties  of  cotton  for  the  different  sections  of  the  cotton  belt.  In  fact,  the 
whole  matter  of  plant  breeding  should  claim  the  special  attention  of  Station 
workers,  for  in  no  other  way  can  the  workers  in  agriculture  and  horticulture 
more  efficiently  aid  the  farmer  and  gardener,  than  in  the  production  of  more 
prolific  plants  of  the  various  crops  and  the  increase  in  the  quality  of  their 
products.  Here  and  there  this  matter  has  been  receiving  attention,  and  the 
real  improvement  in  the  cotton  plant  dates  more  from  the  origin  of  Experi- 
ment Stations  than  during  any  previous  time.  The  cotton  grower,  like  the 
grain  farmer,  has  too  long  been  aiming  at  special  features  in  his  product, 
rather  than  the  general  development  of  the  whole  plant.  The  corn  grower 
of  the  South  has  worked  simply  for  a  big  ear.  He  gets  this  at  the  expense 
of  prolificacy  and  gets  a  tall  and  ungainly  plant.  The  cotton  grower  is  en- 
raptured by  a  big  boll,  and  fails  to  see  that  when  breeding  simply  for 
a  big  boll  he  is  getting  a  long  legged  *Veed."  No  real  improvement  can 
be  effected  in  any  plant  that  proceeds  upon  the  selection  for  a  single  feature 
of  the  plant.  The  cotton  grower  wants,  of  course,  as  large  a  boll  as  possible, 
but  he  does  not  want  the  large  boll  at  the  expense  of  yield  in  general.  He 
likes  a  good  length  of  staple,  but  he  does  not  want  the  long  staple  at  the  ex- 
pense of  late  maturity  and  weakness  in  the  constitution  of  the  plant.     Hence 


34 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

anyone  who  attempts  the  improvement  of  any  of  our  crop  plants  must  study 
the  character  of  the  whole  plant,  and  not  attempt  to  breed  for  characters  that 
are  antagonistic  to  each  other.  Our  southern  farmers  readily  recognize  the 
fact  that  there  are  good  and  poor  varieties  of  corn,  wheat  and  other  crops, 
but  the  great  majority  of  the  growers  seem  to  think  that  cotton  seed  is  simply 
cotton  seed,  and  take  very  little  thought  about  it  so  long  as  it  will  germinate 
and  grow.  The  result  is  that  only  here  and  there  have  there  been  men  who 
have  given  any  attiention  to  the  selection  of  improved  varieties  of  the  cotton 
plant,  and  when  these  improved  varieties  are  sent  out  among  farmers  they  are 
delighted  with  some  of  them  for  a  while,  and  then,  having  secured  the 
improved  strain,  they  assume  that  they  have  it  for  good,  and  go  ahead  as 
they  formerly  did,  get  their  seed  from  the  general  crop  at  the  gin,  and  the 
variable  force  so  strong  in  the  plant,  soon  takes  it  out  of  the  strain  into  which 
care  has  bred  it;  and  though  the  grower  claims  that  he  is  still  growing  the 
variety,  he  has  simply  allowed  it  to  run  back  to  an  inferior  variety  and  finds 
it  no  better  than  the  others.  It  is  not  the  fault  of  the  improved  variety,  but 
of  the  careless  grower.  So  long,  then,  as  the  great  mass  of  cotton  growers 
will  take  no  pains  in  the  proper  selection  of  their  seed,  there  is  room  for  great 
profit  to  the  grower  who  will  work  in  an  intelligent  manner  to  produce,  for 
his  own  use  at  least,  a  cotton  that  will  prove  of  increased  productiveness  and 
quality.  Mr.  H.  B.  Mitchell,  an  intelligent  cotton  grower  in  Georgia,  writing 
in  regard  to  this  matter,  says  that  he  has  proved  the  utter  fallacy  of  the  notion 
that  any  kind  of  cotton  seed  is  as  good  as  any  other.  "Starting  out  with  un- 
improved seed  making  one-fourth  of  a  bale  per  acre,  we  have,  with  improved 
seed  and  careful  selection  each  year,  produced  a  cotton  which,  under  very  ad- 
verse conditions,  yields  a  bale  per  acre,  and  from  which  we  are  satisfied  the 
limit  has  by  no  means  yet  been  reached.  To  improve  seed,  the  first  of  Sep- 
tember we  go  over  the  cotton,  marking  such  stalks  as  evince  the  highest  points 
of  merit.  The  cotton  from  these  stalks  we  pick  in  advance  of  the  regular 
cotton  pickers,  rejecting  all  damaged  or  immature  bolls,  and  spreading  as 
picked,  till  thoroughly  dry.  It  is  next  carried  to  gin,  the  gin  completely 
cleaned  out,  and  swept  around,  a  large  sheet  spread  down  to  receive  the  seed, 
which  is  then  sacked  up  and  so  kept  till  hauled  to  the  field  at  planting  time. 
Were  it  not  for  bees  there  would  be  no  trouble  in  keeping  the  cotton  pure, 
but  they  bring  the  pollen  from  fields  of  unimproved  cotton,  causing  a  good 
deal  of  mixture." 

Mr.  W.  E.  Cole,  of  Cartersville,  Ga.,  writes :  "I  was  raised  on  a  cotton  farm 
in  the  old  South,  and  no  care  was  taken  in  the  saving  of  the  seed,  but  it  was 
simply  taken  from  the  general  seed  pile  at  the  gin  in  the  fall.  As  I 
grew  older  I  began  the  study  of  the  cotton  plant  more  closely.     I  noticed 


Plant  Breeding — 35 

that  some  stalks  produced  more  lint  than  others  and  of  a  better  quality,  while 
some  had  hardly  any  as  the  seed  was  black  and  lintless,  and  these,  of  course, 
had  their  influence  on  the  plants  around.  I  began  to  think  that  if  one  could 
get  rid  of  those  black  and  lintless  seeds  it  would  be  a  great  improvement  in 
the  cotton.  (Lintless  seeds  bear  the  same  relation  to  cotton  as  barren  stalks 
do  to  corn. — W.  F.  M.)  But  upon  noticing  more  closely  I  found  several 
varieties  of  cotton  in  the  same  field.  Some  was  storm  proof,  while  in  others 
the  cotton  would  fall  from  the  boll  in  the  least  shower  of  wind  or  rain.  In 
1897,  while  picking  cotton,  I  found  a  variety  which  suited  me  better  than  any 
I  have  ever  seen,  as  it  produces  more  and  larger  bolls  and  lint  of  a  superior 
quality,  being  long  and  fine  and  the  seed  of  small  size.  When  the  season  was 
over  I  had  fifty  pounds  of  seed  cotton  of  this  variety.  I  took  it  to  my  ginner 
and  gave  him  the  lint  to  take  the  seed  out  clean  and  separately.  He  cleaned 
his  gin  of  all  seed  that  was  in  it,  and  fed  it  through  by  hand,  so  that  I  had  a 
bushel  of  clean  seed  to  take  home.  In  the  spring  this  was  planted  on  an 
acre,  well  cultivated  and  thinned  to  eighteen  inches  apart  in  three-foot  rows. 
It  made  a  rank  growth  and  we  had  to  lay  it  by  the  last  of  June,  as  it  was 
then  too  rank  to  get  through.  When  fall  came  it  was  a  pleasant  sight  to  look 
upon,  the  stalks  averaging  40  to  50  bolls  and  some  as  many  as  80  well  devel- 
oped bolls ;  and  would  pick  nearly  a  pound  of  cotton.  I  cleaned  1,000  pounds 
of  lint  from  that  acre  and  got  seed  enough  to  plant  my  entire  crop  the 
following  year.  I  sold  no  seed  that  year.  One  of  my  neighbors  contended 
there  was  nothing  in  selected  seed  and  I  gave  him  a  bushel  of  my  seed,  which 
he  planted  in  the  middle  of  his  field  with  mixed  varieties  on  either  side,  to  give 
it  a  fair  test ;  when  fall  came  he  was  thoroughly  convinced,  as  the  selected 
seed  made  double  the  crop  of  the  mixed  seed  on  the  same  ground.  I  make 
35  to  50  per  cent,  more  cotton  than  with  mixed  and  unselected  seed." 

These  items  of  experience,  from  practical  cotton  growers,  show  plainly 
that  there  is  no  crop  more  amenable  to  improvement  than  the  cotton  crop, 
if  the  seed  is  wisely  selected.  If  every  grower  of  cotton  would  take  the  same 
pains  the  crop  could  easily  be  doubled  without  any  increase  of  acreage,  and 
there  would  be  more  profit  at  low  prices  than  there  is  now  at  fair  prices. 
Since  the  price  of  cotton  in  this  country  is  almost  entirely  dependent  upon 
the  size  of  the  crop,  and  a  large  crop  is  apt  to  run  the  price  down  to 
a  point  at  which  a  careless  grower  finds  no  profit,  it  is  evident  that  if  a  care- 
ful man,  by  intelligent  selection  of  seed,  can  double  the  product  of  his  area, 
the  selection  is  well  worth  looking  after. 

But,  as  we  have  said,  any  selection  for  the  improvement  of  the  product 
must  take  into  consideration  the  whole  plant  and  its  surroundings.  The 
habit  of  the  plant  has  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the  size  and  character  of  the 


36 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

crop.  A  cotton  plant  that  habitually  grows  long-jointed  and  single-boiled 
can  never  be  as  productive  as  one  that  is  more  compact  in  habit  and  makes 
twin  bolls.  Long  staple  is  a  good  feature,  but  if  mere  length  of  staple  is 
the  only  feature  looked  after  it  may  be  accomp-anied  by  other  less  desirable 
characters.  Hence,  in  the  improvement  of  cotton,  it  is  desirable  to  get  to- 
gether the  plants  that  have  certain  desirable  features,  though  they  may  not  all 
be  combined  in  one  plant.  But  by  planting  together  the  ones  that  have  at  least 
one  feature  we  are  after,  and  taking  them  away  from  the  influence  of  plants 
like  the  lintless  ones,  we  may  by  degrees  get  the  desirable  features  combined 
in  one  variety,  if  we  annually  work  towards  an  ideal.  Mr.  Cole  was  very 
fortunate  in  making  such  an  advance  in  a  single  season,  but  if  the  same 
selection  is  not  followed  up  the  variable  character  of  the  plant  will  soon  run 
the  cotton  back  to  its  former  mixed  character.  The  permanent  improvement 
of  no  plant  that  is  annually  reproduced  from  seed  can  be  effected  in  a  single 
season.  We  must  patiently,  year  after  year,  select  towards  the  ideal  we  have 
in  mind,  until  we  have  established  hereditary  tendencies  to  come  like  the  seed 
plant.  Only  after  years  of  careful  selection  can  we  claim  to  have  an  im- 
proved variety.  And  here  is  right  where  there  has  been  more  failures  than 
in  anything  else  connected  with  the  cotton  crop.  One  grower,  like  Mr.  Cole, 
finds  plants  of  extra  quality  and  saves  the  seed.  The  result  is  an  improve- 
ment. But  the  plants  selected  from  were  surrounded  by  others  of  inferior 
character,  and,  as  Mr.  Mitchell  says,  the  bees  are  always  bringing  pollen  to 
the  blooms,  for  there  is  a  great  deal  of  nectar  in  a  cotton  flower,  and  the 
result  is  that  the  variety  is  not  uniformly  the  same,  nor  permanent.  The 
plants  for  seed  should  annually  be  planted  in  a  section  by  themselves,  and  all 
inferior  plants  that  vary  from  the  type  sought  should  be  rigorously  rogued 
out.  No  matter  if  your  entire  crop  was  planted  that  season  from  selected 
seed  of  the  year  before,  save  no  seed  but  from  the  seed  patch  where  the  watch 
has  been  kept  on  it,  and  finally  you  will  get  a  real  race,  or  strain,  of  improved 
cotton  that  will  be  permanent.  I  have  treated  thus  fully  on  the  fruit 
and  the  seed,  since  upon  these  depend  all  the  improvement  we  are  to  make 
in  our  cultivated  plants  that  are  to  produce  the  crops  we  sell  and  use.  And 
there  is  no  one  point  in  farm  economy  more  neglected  than  the  breeding  of 
the  plants  we  cultivate.  Seedsmen  fully  understand  the  great  value  of  pedi- 
gree in  their  seed  stocks,  and  pedigree  in  a  plant  also  that  in  an  animal,  comes 
through  thoughtful  and  persistent  breeding  towards  an  ideal  plant  or  animal. 
We  have  treated  of  the  selection  of  seed  in  the  corn  and  cotton  plants  as  types 
of  two  great  crops  that  are  of  interest  to  two  large  classes  of  growers.  But 
the  improvement  through  selection  is  not  confined  to  cotton  and  corn.  There 
is  not  a  crop  grown  on  the  farm  that  will  not  yield  improved  results  to  the 


Plant  Breeding — 37 

intelligent  plant  breeder.  The  broom  corn  grower  can  increase  the  length 
and  quality  of  his  brush  and  get  it  on  a  plant  nearer  within  reach  by  careful 
selection  and  the  growing  of  a  seed-stock  by  itself,  for  no  permanent  advance 
can  be  made  so  long  as  the  seed-stock  is  subject  to  disturbing  influences  around 
it.  We  have  been  hearing  a  great  deal  of  late  years  about  the  need  for  seed 
testing  under  Government  control,  and  our  great  Department  of  Agriculture 
has,  until  recently,  done  a  good  deal  of  laboratory  testing  of  seeds.  While 
this  work  has  a  certain  value  in  the  determining  of  the  clean  character  of  the 
seeds  and  their  germinating  quality,  it  does  not  go  far  enough  to  determine 
anything  of  real  value  to  the  cultivator.  The  wide  awake  gardener,  farmer 
or  seed  grower  lays  more  stress  upon  the  pedigree  of  the  seed  than  upon  the 
mere  matter  of  percentage  of  germination.  Of  course  a  fair  percentage  of 
germinating  power  is  essential  in  any  seed  that  is  to  be  planted,  but  the  wise 
cultivator  will  take  seed  of  a  lower  germination  test  than  another  if  he  knows 
that  it  has  a  better  pedigree  behind  it.  The  laboratory  germination  test 
proves  nothing  in  this  regard,  and,  in  fact,  would  not  show  whether  a  certain 
sample  was  cabbage  seed  or  cauliflower  or  some  other  cruciferous 
plant,  or  whether  a  certain  sample  of  beets  was  an  early  or 
late  variety.  All  that  the  laboratory  test  proves  is  the  per- 
centage of  pure  seed  free  from  trash  and  weeds  there  is  in  a 
sample  and  the  percentage  of  these  seeds  that  will  germinate.  The  only 
real  test  of  seeds  is  that  practiced  by  the  best  seedsmen  who  run  farms  at 
great  expense,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  testing  the  seeds  they  sell,  in  the  same 
conditions  that  their  customers  must  be  under;  and  also  by  the  workers  in 
the  Experiment  Stations  in  their  variety  trials.  Intelligent  seed  growers 
must  of  necessity  understand  the  laws  of  nature  under  which  all  their  at- 
tempts at  improvement  must  be  carried  out.  It  is  an  easy  matter  for  the 
gardener  who  is  propagating  plants  from  cuttings,  buds,  grafts  and  layers  to 
catch  and  make  permanent  a  certain  variation  in  his  plants  that  may  be 
desirable,  for  he  is  simply  reproducing  that  identical  plant ;  and  he  can  retain 
the  variation  at  once  and  make  it  permanent,  as  I  have  shown,  in  the  instance 
of  the  rose  grown  from  a  sporting  shoot,  which  at  once  makes  a  new  variety 
to  be  cut  into  thousands  and  put  on  new  roots.  But  in  the  case  of  the  plants 
annually  grown  from  seed  there  is  a  set  of  very  different  conditions.  Plants 
are  infinitely  variable,  and  the  blossoms  that  are  to  form  the  seeds  are 
subject  to  infinite  interference  from  insects,  winds  and  the  neighborhood  of 
other  plants  of  the  same  species.  Plants  of  a  vigorous  character  are  always 
tending  to  break  away  from  the  line  of  their  breeding,  and  if  the  grower 
slack  in  his  efforts,  or  loses  sight  of  the  ideal  towards  which  he  is  selecting, 
nature  makes  a  reversion,  and  it  may  be  towards  an  inferior  type.     Hence,  as 


38 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

we  have  said  in  the  case  of  the  cotton  of  Mr.  Cole,  it  is  not  enough  to  have 
made  a  start.  It  must  be  kept  up,  and  only  constant  vigilance  will  keep  any 
plant  true  to  type  and  above  its  fellows.  Therefore  we  would  lay  down  the 
following  rules  for  those  who  would  improve  their  cultivated  crops: 

1.  Fix  well  in  mind  the  type  of  plant  you  wish  to  grow,  and  never  for  an 
instant  lose  sight  of  it. 

2.  Begin  by  selecting  the  plant  that  comes  nearest  to  the  type,  and  do  not 
expect  to  get  your  ideal  all  at  once. 

3.  So  far  as  practicable,  remove  inferior  plants  from  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  your  selected  plant ;  save  seed  from  the  selected  plant  only. 

4.  Plant  the  selected  seed  as  far  removed  as  possible  from  any  other 
plants  of  the  same  kind,  and  then  rigidly  root  out  every  plant  that  falls  below 
the  first  selection;  save  seed  only  from  plants  that  show  a  decided  advance 
towards  the  ideal  plant  you  have  in  mind. 

5.  !N"ever  breed  for  a  single  character  of  the  plant,  but  take  the  whole 
plant  into  consideration.  If  you  breed  simply  for  a  big  ear  of  corn  or  a  big 
boll  of  cotton,  you  may  get  these  at  the  expense  of  other  desirable  characters ; 
but  take  the  whole  character  of  the  plant,  its  habit  of  growth,  its  general 
productiveness  and  every  desirable  character,  so  as  to  get  not  only  the  kind  of 
product  you  want,  but  get  it  on  an  ideal  plant.  If  you  follow  this  up  with 
patience>  year  after  year,  always  remembering  that  what  you  want  is  seldom 
what  nature  would  place  in  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  and  that  any  relax- 
ation of  effort  on  your  part  will  give  nature  a  chance  to  undo  your  work, — 
you  will  finally  find  that  you  have  a  race  of  seed  on  which  you  can  rely 
with  certainty  as  to  the  result,  you  will  find  that  intelligent  seed  merchants 
are  ever  on  the  hunt  for  the  men  who  have  sense  enough  to  study  and  im- 
prove their  plants,  your  neighbors  will  take  an  interest  in  your  crops  and  there 
will  be  more  money  in  your  purse,  and  you  will  be  a  benefactor  of  -your  race 
by  improving  production. 

While  the  improvement  of  the  soil  for  the  production  of  crops  is  the 
main  object  of  this  book,  there  is  no  doubt  that  we  will  be  excused  for  dwell- 
ing so  long  on  the  seed  and  its  selection,  for  there  is  fully  as  much  to  be 
gained  in  this  way  as  by  the  improvement  of  the  soil  in  which  they  are  grown. 

'No  matter  how  a  farmer  or  gardener  may  improve  his  soil  in  productive 
capacity,  if  he  plants  seed  of  inferior  character  his  crops  will  not  be  what  they 
should  be.  If  our  farm  readers  could  visit,  as  I  have  done,  the  seed  farms  of 
the  seed  growers,  and  the  testing  farms  of  the  great  seed  dealers,  they  would 
be  amazed  at  the  minute  care  that  is  needed  to  preserve  and  improve  the 
seeds  they  purchase ;  they  would  no  longer  wonder  that  first  class  seeds  must 
bring  a  fair  price,  and  they  would  realize  that  the  most  costly  thing  a  man 


Plant  Breeding — 39 

can  buy  is  poor  seed.  Not  merely  seed  of  poor  germinating  power,  but  seed 
destitute  of  breeding,  and,  like  a  scrub  cow,  not  entitled  to  register  among 
well  bred  animals.  And  yet  in  all  their  purchases  there  is  no  one  point  where 
farmers  are  so  short  sighted  as  in  the  purchase  of  seed.  This  is  particularly 
true  of  seeds  of  forage  and  grass  crops,  which  are  so  generally  purchased.  A 
farmer  finds  in  the  hands  of  a  commission  merchant  a  lot  of  clover  seed  right 
from  the  huller,  and  buys  it,  solely  because  it  is  to  be  had  for  a  dollar  or  more 
less  per  bushel  than  seed  that  a  seedsman  has  carefully  recleaned.  The  re- 
cleaned  seed  is  usually  cheaper  by  reason  of  the  greater  number  of  clover  seed 
in  the  bushel,  and  it  is  infinitely  cheaper  in  the  fact  that  the  farmer  sows  no 
weeds  with  it.  The  larger  part  of  the  weeds  that  infest  our  farms  and  re- 
duce our  crops,  have  gotten  there  in  foul  grass  and  clover  seed.  A  farmer 
recently  wrote  me  that  his  farm  is  so  completely  stocked  with  the  narrow- 
leaf  plantain  gotten  in  clover  seed  that  he  can  no  longer  make  a  decent  crop  of 
clover.  I  never  read  a  better  sermon  on  the  value  of  clean  seed  than  his  let- 
ter. Buying  cheap  seeds,  or  rather  low  priced  seeds,  is  "saving  at  the  spigot 
and  losing  at  the  bunghole."  Better  pay  two  prices  for  clean  clover  and 
grass  seed  than  to  have  the  inferior  given  to  you.  Farmers  should  be  students 
of  seeds  in  more  ways  than  one.  They  should  learn  to  know  seeds  of  all  sorts 
when  they  see  them.  For  instance,  take  a  sample  of  clover  seed.  It  may 
have  in  it  as  a  purposely  added  adulteration  (as  is  practiced  by  some),  seeds 
of  the  worthless  yellow  trefoil ;  and  the  farmer  who  has  not  studied  seeds  will 
not  detect  the  adulteration  till  he  sees  his  fields  yellow  with  the  trefoil  in- 
s>tead  of  red  clover.  It  may  have  in  it  seeds  of  dodder  that  will  speedily  de- 
stroy clover,  and  they  will  pass  muster  with  the  careless  observer,  by  reason 
of  their  yellow  color.  A  good  magnifying  glass  is  of  greatest  import- 
ance in  the  selection  of  seeds,  and  a  knowledge  of  seeds  is  quite  as  important. 
Hence  every  farmer  should  get  a  collection  of  the  seeds  of  all  sorts  of  foul 
weeds,  and  get  completely  familiar  with  them,  so  that  he  can  at  once  detect 
what  impurities  are  in  the  seed  samples  he  is  examining.  The  seed  is  the 
starting  point  of  the  crop,  and  if  the  crop  is  to  be  a  success  the  seed  must  be 
the  best.  The  seed  is  also  the  starting  point  of  the  weed,  for  a  weed  is  merely 
a  plant  where  it  is  not  wanted.  Hence  if  we  do  not  want  weeds  we  should  be 
extremely  careful  never  to  sow  them.  Many  thousands  of  acres  of  the  best 
mowing  lands  are  so  foul  with  weeds  that  there  is  more  weed  in  the  hay  than 
timothy  or  clover,  and  the  losses  to  farmers  all  over  the  land,  through  foul 
clover  and  grass  seed,  are  so  great  that  we  cannot  too  urgently  insist  upon  the 
importance  of  the  seed. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
TEE  SOIL. 

While,  as  we  have  seen,  plants  get  b}^  far  the  larger  part  of  their  structure 
from  the  air,  they  get  by  far  the  most  important  matters  from  the  soil,  so  far 
as  the  making  of  a  crop  is  concerned.  While  the  carbon-di-oxide  in  the  air 
and  the  oxygen  itself  are  essential  to  plant  growth,  the  soil  and  the  matters 
which  it  furnishes  are  also  essential.  Some  idea,  therefore,  of  the  origin  of 
soils  and  their  nature  and  composition  is  essential  to  a  proper  understanding 
of  plant  life,  and  the  means  for  best  sustaining  and  improving  it. 

Back  in  the  eighteenth  century,  the  great  French  chemist,  Lavoisier, 
enunciated  the  great  truth  that  in  this  earth  nothing  is  created  and  nothing 
is  destroyed.  That  is,  all  substances  that  now  exist  have  existed  from  the 
beginning  and  will  always  exist.  We  cannot  create  anything ;  we  can  simply 
make  new  combinations  of  things  already  existing  in  soil  and  air,  and  when 
this  new  combination  is  destroyed,  these  matters  go  back  to  the  forms  in 
which  they  were  acquired.  We  grow  a  tree  from  materials  existing  in  soil 
and  air.  Finally  we  burn  the  tree  and  get  back  the  heat  it  originally  got 
from  the  sun.  It  is  destroyed  as  a  tree,  but  the  carbon-di-oxide  and  water 
and  nitrogen  have  gone  back  where  they  came  from,  into  the  air;  we  have 
left  a  handful  of  ashes,  representing  what  it  got  from  the  soil,  and  these  we 
put  back  in  the  soil,  where  they  can  be  used  over  again  to  build  other  plants. 
The  elements  that  went  to  make  up  the  tree  are  still  in  existence,  Just  as  they 
were  before  they  were  combined  into  a  tree;  and  so  in  soil  and  air  nature  is 
simply  working  over  the  same  old  materials  and  forming  new  combinations. 
.  The  soils  that  form  the  foundation  for  our  farms  are  all  the  result  of  the 
gradual  breaking  down  of  the  old  earth-crust,  and  the  crumbling  and  pulver- 
izing of  the  rocks  through  natural  agencies.  When  the  earth  first  cooled 
from  a  molten  ball,  the  old,  crystalline  rocks  were  formed,  and  in  the  lapse 
of  ages  other  rocks  were  formed  under  water,  and  afterwards  were  elevated. 
As  soon  as  rocks  are  above  the  sea  the  process  of  disintegration  begins.     The 

(40) 


The  Soil— 41 

waves  of  the  ocean  dash  upon  them  and  grind  them  into  sand.  Rains,  by 
imperceptible  degrees,  dissolve  them.  Water  gets  into  the  cracks  and  by 
freezing,  forces  off  particles  large  or  small.  It  is,  therefore,  by  this  weather- 
ing process  that  the  materials  for  our  soils  have  been  formed,  and  then 
washed  down  from  the  higher  to  lower  elevations,  and  spread  abroad  over 
the  rocky  base- 
Many  soils  are  formed  from  the  gradual  decay  of  the  rocks  on  which 
they  rest,  and  are,  therefore,  of  the  same  composition  as  the  rocks  themselves. 
Other  soils  have  no  connection  with  the  rocks  beneath  them,  but  are  formed 
by  the  decomposition  of  other  rocks,  mixed  with  decayed  organic  matter,  and 
brought  down  in  flood  and  deposited  on  the  low  lands,  making  what  are 
known  as  alluvial  soils.  Then,  too,  in  many  instances  the  valley  lands, 
known  as  limestone  soils,  are  the  beds  of  ancient  lakes,  in  which  the  lime- 
stone was  formed  from  the  shells  of  mollusks ;  the  alluvial  soil  was  afterwards 
accumulated  above  the  rocks,  and  the  soil  really  contains  less  lime  than  soil 
of  a  very  different  formation. 

The  mountains  of  the  present  day  are  far  lower  than  they  were  when  first 
formed,  and  the  constant  wearing  away  is  still  going  on;  the  streams  still 
bring  down  from  the  mountains  vast  amounts  of  fresh  soil  to  accumulate  on 
the  flats  and  river  bottoms,  gradually  forming  more  alluvium. 

Every  hill  that  is  in  cultivation  is  constantly  being  carried  off  to  the 
lower  lands ;  hence,  the  low  lands  are  of  varying  nature,  sandy,  clayey  or  silty, 
according  to  the  kind  of  material  brought  down  to  them  from  time  to  time. 
Of  course,  there  is  a  great  variation  in  the  mineral  constituents  of  soils  every- 
where, depending  on  the  chemical  make  up*  of  the  rocks  from  which  these 
mineral  matters  come.  Low  lands  about  the  bases  of  the  hills  are  generally 
fertile,  not  only  because  of  the  masses  of  soil  transported  to  them  in  floods, 
but  because  the  rain  water  running  down  to  them  from  the  hills  carries  the 
most  soluble  elements  of  fertility  with  it,  to  be  absorbed  by  the  low-land  soil. 
The  low  lands  are  constantly  being  extended  and  elevated,  and  the  ponds  are 
constantly  being  fllled,  till  finally  the  smaller  lakes  become  fast  land,  being 
filled  up  by.  soil  washed  down  from  the  hills  and  with  the  remains  of  the 
vegetation  they  produce  themselves. 

But  while  all  the  soft  earth  above  the  solid  rocks  is  called  soil,  the  soil 
that  the  farmer  is  mainly  concerned  with  is  that  upper  portion  that  has  be- 
come altered  by  exposure  to  the  effects  of  the  air  and  the  carbonic  acid  in  the 
rain  water,  and  which  has  become  mixed  with  the  decay  of  vegetable  mat- 
ter and  has  assumed  a  darker  color  by  reason  of  this  vegetable  decay.  We  call 
this  the  soil,  and  all  that  lies  below  is  called  the  subsoil.  They  may  be,  and 
generally  in  our  upland  soils  are,  identical  in  their  composition ;  and  differ 


42 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

only  in  the  fact  that  the  surface  soil  has  accumulated  humus  from  the  vege- 
decay,  and,  by  being  exposed  to  the  action  of  the  oxygen  of  the  air,  has  been 
brought  into  a  condition  in  which  it  more  readily  gives  up  to  plants  its  store 
of  food. 

The  original  source  of  the  humus  in  the  soil  was  the  natural  growth  on 
the  land.  Nature  does  not  like  bare  ground  and  she  soon  covers  it  with  some 
sort  of  vegetation.  Among  the  grass  and  weeds  the  seeds  of  trees  find  lodge- 
ment and  grow,  and  soon  a  forest  is  formed.  The  trees  send  their  roots  down 
deeply  into  the  soil,  and  then  scatter  their  leaves  on  the  surface  to  gradually 
decay,  year  after  year  forming  more  and  more  of  the  black  decay,  and  increas- 
ing the  fertility  of  the  soil. 

Then,  after  a  while,  some  one  comes  along  and  cuts  the  forest  down,  and 
begins  to  cultivate  the  soil.  He  finds  it  fertile  and  productive,  and  he  goes 
right  along  cultivating  it  in  the  same  crop  year  after  year,  and  it  grad- 
ually becomes  less  and  less  productive,  till  finally  it  is  abandoned,  to  grow  up 
once  more  in  grass  and  weeds  and  once  more  be  taken  by  nature  for  a  new 
forest.  Then,  on  the  soil  which  was  called  worn  out,  but  which  was  simply 
rendered  unproductive  by  bad  treatment,  nature,  by  her  unaided  forces,  with 
no  fertilizer  but  that  which  she  gathers  from  her  own  bosom,  makes  a  grander 
growth  than  the  man  who  wasted  the  soil  ever  grew.  And  she  repeats  the 
same  process  that  formed  the  soil  in  the  beginning,  bringing  up  from  deep 
down  in  the  subsoil  matters  for  the  growth  of  trees,  and  spreading  it  year 
after  year  on  the  surface.  Then  another  fellow  comes  along  and  makes  fire- 
wood out  of  this  second  forest,  and  goes  to  work  to  reduce  again  the  soil 
made  fertile  by  the  forest.  He  succeeeds  sooner  than  the  first,  for  the  accumu- 
lation is  more  recent  and  lighter.  But  this  man  cannot  afford  to  throw  the 
land  out  and  clear  another  piece  as  the  first  possessor  of  the  soil  did. 

So  he  begins  to  dribble  a  little  commercial  fertilizer  on  it  to  induce  the 
soil  to  yield  him  crops  to  selL  He  does  this  year  after  year,  and  keeps  culti- 
vating the  land  in  cotton  or  corn  or  wheat,  as  the  case  may  be,  and  he  wonders 
that  the  land  seems  to  grow  poorer  and  poorer,  and  the  farmer  gets  poor  too. 
But  let  him  stop  in  despair,  and  nature  will  grow  a  grand  crop  a^ain  on  that 
land  without  calling  in  the  aid  of  the  fertilizer  man.  Of  course,  we  cannot, 
in  our  modern  agriculture,  adopt  the  methods  that  nature  does  exactly. 
Life  is  too  short  for  a  man  to  wait  for  the  forest  to  grow  and  enrich  a  piece 
of  land  for  him ;  he  must  get  the  same  results  in  a  far  quicker  manner.  Get- 
ting a  hint  from  nature's  methods,  we  can  do  all  that  she  does,  and  do  it  in 
a  very  brief  time  compared  with  her  work.  That  the  soil  has  not  been  ex- 
hausted as  was  thought,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  forest  grows  readily  on 
this  land  when  it  is  left  to  its  own  resources.     It  had  simply  declined  to  give 


The  Soil— 43 

up  its  plant  food  as  rapidly  as  we  needed  it  for  crops,  but  was  still  in  condi- 
tion to  gradually  give  it  up  to  the  slower  demands  of  the  forest.  The  fact 
is,  that  no  land,  originally  fertile,  and  of  good  mechanical  composition,  is 
ever  worn  out.  It  may  be  brought  into  a  very  unproductive  condition,  and 
its  mechanical  condition  be  made  unfavorable  to  the  production  of  crops,  but 
it  will  still  have  the  matters  in  it  that  can  be  made  available.  By  proper 
tillage  and  the  use  of  restorative  crops,  such  soils  can  be  restored  to  their 
original  productiveness  through  their  own  resources.  The  process  of  restor- 
ing such  soils  in  this  way  would  be  too  slow  for  our  modern  ideas,  and  hence 
the  soluble  matters  used  in  a  concentrated  form  as  fertilizers  have  their 
legitimate  use  in  the  upbuilding  of  the  modern  farm. 

In  many  cases  the  soil  has  simply  been  robbed  of  the  humus  or  vegetable 
decay,  and  is  still  as  rich  in  mineral  plant  food  as  ever,  but  its  mechanical 
condition  is  such  that  plants  cannot  thrive  in  it  as  they  did. 

The  soil  runs  together  and  bakes  hard  after  rains,  and  the  cost  of  tillage 
is  greatly  increased,  while  the  productiveness  of  the  land  has  decreased.  It 
simply  needs  a  restoration  of  the  black  humus  that  made  it  mellow  and  re- 
tentive of  moisture,  and  rendered  the  plant  food  in  it  more  available. 

There  are  many  soils  called  worn  out  which  never  had  much  to  wear  out. 
A  little  accumulation  of  vegetable  matter  on  top  of  a  deep  sand  was  soon  used 
up,  and  a  blowing  sand  is  the  result.  Such  soils  had  far  better  be  left  to 
pine  and  scrub  oak. 

Thousands  of  American  farmers  find  themselves  confronted  by  the  prob- 
lem of  "worn  out^'  lands,  and  how  to  restore  them  to  productiveness,  and  it  is 
with  the  hope  of  aiding  them  in  the  solution  of  the  problem  in  an  economical 
manner  that  this  book  has  been  written. 

LIVING  SOILS  AND  DEAD  SOILS. 

There  are  in  many  sections  of  the  country,  large  areas  of  land  originally 
fertile  and  productive,  which  would  have  remained  permanently  productive, 
had  they  been  properly  managed.  Their  condition  is  due  largely  to  the  fact 
that  life  has.  abandoned  them,  because  the  low  forms  of  plant  life  that  carry 
on  the  changes  in  the  soil  and  make  plant  food  available,  have  been  starved 
out,  and  no  addition  simply  of  concentrated  plant  foods  will  take  the  place  of 
the  foods  on  which  the  bacteria  of  nitrification  exist.  When  these  lands  were 
cleared  from  the  forest,  or  broken  from  the  prairie  sod,  they  were  full  of  the 
black  decay  of  organic  matter.  They  were  retentive  of  moisture  and  gave  up 
their  plant  food  to  the  cultivator  in  abundant  crops.  Year  after  year  the 
process  was  repeated  and  the  soil  robbed.     No  steps  were  taken  to  keep  up 


44 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

the  amount  of  the  black  humus  that  made  the  soil  originally  productive,  and 
gradually  it  was  used  up.  The  minute  organisms,  whose  life  is  spent,  in  the 
transformation  of  this  organic  matter  into  forms  adapted  to  the  use  of  crops, 
perish  by  reason  of  the  burning  up  of  the  humus.  There  is  nothing  for  them 
to  work  upon.  The  soil  runs  together  and  bakes  under  the  influence  of  the 
rains,  and  rapidly  dries  out,  so  that  there  is  a  lack  of  moisture  for  the  solu- 
tion of  the  plant  food  it  contains.  The  oxidizing  influence  of  the  air  fails  to 
penetrate  the  compact  soil,  and  though  it  still  contains  all  the  plant  food 
needed  for  big  crops,  it  becomes  an  unproductive  soil  because  plants  can  no 
longer  get  what  the  soil  has  for  them  in  abundance.  It  is  a  dead  soil.  And 
all  over  the  land  one  sees  these  dead  soils,  made  so  not  only  by  the  using  up 
of  the  humus  but  by  the  settling  of  the  soil  into  a  sour  mass ;  where  formerly 
it  hardly  needed  drainage,  now  it  is  sour,  not  from  lack  of  food  but  from 
lack  of  the  ability  of  the  air  to  penetrate  and  mellow  it.  That  humus  may 
not  have  had  in  it  nearly  the  amount  of  plant  food  that  still  remains  in  the 
soil,  but  it  was  the  preservative  agent  in  the  soil,  the  only  thing  that  kept 
life  there,  and  its  absence  means  death  to  soil  and  crops.  One  of  the  most 
thoughtless  advocates  of  commercial  fertilizers  some  time  ago  said  in  print: 
"Give  humus  a  rest,  we  can  get  along  without  it  if  we  have  plenty  of  soluble 
fertilizers  for  our  crops."  All  over  the  country,  and  especially 
in  the  South,  farmers  have  been  giving  humus  a  rest,  and 
their  lands  have  become  less  and  less  productive,  notwithstanding 
the  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  commercial  fertilizers  they  use 
upon  them  in  the  vain  hope  that  they  will  take  the  place  of  permanent  fer- 
tility. If  the  worn  soils  are  ever  to  be  redeemed  it  must  be  through  the  get- 
ting back  there  of  that  bacterial  life  that  carries  on  the  changes  in  organic 
decay,  and  these  can  only  exist  when  there  is  this  organic  decay  present.  A 
soil  filled  with  bacterial  life  is  really  a  living  soil  and  a  fertile  one,  while  one 
without  it  will  always  be  less  productive.  It  will  be  less  productive,  not  only 
by  reason  of  the  absence  of  the  organisms  that  release  nitrogen  in  the  soil,  but 
by  reason  of  its  smaller  power  to  retain  moisture  and  heat  and  to  dissolve  the 
plant  foods  applied  in  the  fertilizers.  Last  summer  we  applied  a  dressing  of 
fertilizer  to  a  crop  of  sweet  potatoes  on  some  of  this  dead  land.  .The  summer 
was  extremely  dry,  and  when  the  potatoes  were  dug  the  crop  was  only  such  as 
the  soil  would  have  made  alone,  for  the  fertilizer  was  lying  there  as  dry  as 
when  applied.  On  another  piece  where  the  humus  had  been  to  some  extent 
restored,  the  fertilizer  acted  well,  simply  because  there  was  moisture  retained 
there  to  dissolve  it,  and  the  plants  got  it.  If  there  were  no  living  organisms 
to  help  us  in  this  humus,  its  mechanical  effect  would  alone  give  it  sufficient 
value  to  warrant  every  effort  to  retain  and  increase  it. 


The  Soil— 45 
how  to  determine  what  the  soil  needs. 

When  men  first  began  to  be  interested  in  the  chemical  composition  of 
soils,  and  the  improvement  of  their  productive  capacity,  they  jumped  to  the 
conclusion  that  a  chemical  analysis  would  show  them  just  what  was  lacking; 
and  by  adding  this  they  could  restore  the  soil  to  its  original  productive 
character.  But  chemical  analysis  at  once  showed  them  that  there  may  exist 
very  large  quantities  of  all  the  needed  plant  foods  and  yet  the  soil  remain  in 
a  very  unproductive  state,  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  plant  food  it  contains 
is  in  a  condition  insoluble  in  the  soil-water,  and,  as  the  plants  cannot  take 
anything  through  their  roots  that  is  not  completely  dissolved  in  the  soil- 
water,  they  starve  in  the  midst  of  potential  plenty.  Therefore,  while  soil 
analysis  has  its  use,  it  can  never  be  depended  upon  to  tell  the  farmer  just 
what  his  soil  needs  to  render  it  productive,  so  far  as  the  food  supply  is  con- 
cerned. The  fact  is,  too,  that  soils  vary  widely  within  narrow  areas,  and  an 
analysis  of  the  soil  from  one  portion  of  a  field  will  not  give  a  correct  idea  of 
the  nature  of  the  soil  in  another  portion.  As  the  uselessness  of  soil  analyses 
became  apparent  men  began  to  study  the  needs  of  plants,  and  the  way  in 
which  different  crops  use  the  food  elements.  While  all  plants  use  the  same 
kinds  of  food  from  the  soil,  they  use  them  in  varying  proportions,  one  needing 
more  nitrogen,  or  more  phosphoric  acid,  or  more  potash  than  another.  Acting 
on  the  belief  that  from  the  analysis  of  the  plant  we  could  accordingly  propor- 
tion the  different  plant-food  elements  for  each  crop,  the  manufacturers  of 
fertilizers  began  to  make  what  are  known  as  special  fertilizers,  and  recom- 
mended one  for  one  crop  and  another  for  another.  There  seemed  to  be  a  rea- 
sonable basis  for  such  notions,  but  really  there  is  not  such  a  serious  difference 
after  all,  in  the  manurial  requirements  of  plants,  while  there  is  a  wide  dif- 
ference in  the  manurial  requirements  of  soils. 

If  chemical  analysis,  then,  will  not  materially  help  us  in  deciding  what 
our  soils  need,  how  are  we  to  ascertain  what  we  should  apply  and  what  we 
need  not  buy?  All  farmers  know  that  without  some  such  knowledge  they 
are  likely  to  be  wasting  money  in  the  purchase  of  matters  that  they  do  not 
need  on  their  land.  This  is  a  matter  which  every  farmer  must  find  out  for 
himself,  and  no  one  can  find  it  for  him  elsewhere  than  right  on  his  own  farm. 

Hence  every  farmer  should  be,  to  some  extent,  an  experimenter.  He 
must  experiment  with  his  land  not  only  to  discover  its  food  needs,  but  also 
to  find  whether  through  imperfect  preparation  and  imperfect  drainage  he 
is  not  obliged  to  buy  plant  food  which  he  does  not  need  at  all.  Of  the 
methods  of  this  experimentation  we  will  treat  in  detail  elsewhere.  First  let 
us  see  what  things  are  essential  in  the  aQil  in  order  that  plants  may  grow. 


CHAPTEK  V. 
PLANT  FOOD, 

We  have  already  seen  that  by  far  the  larger  part  of  the  bulk  of  the  plant 
comes  from  the  air,  through  the  assimilation  of  carbon  by  the  green  leaves. 
By  burning  the  plant  we  drive  this  off  into  the  air  again,  and  with  it  also  the 
nitrogen,  which  came  to  the  plant  from  the  soil,  but  originally  was  derived 
by  the  soil  from  the  air. 

What  we  have  left  in  our  ashes  shows  the  mineral  matters  that  were 
derived  from  the  soil.  Chemical  analysis  shows  us  what  these  were.  We 
find  that  the  ash  consists  of  various  combinations  of  what  are  known  as 
elements.  An  element  is  matter  reduced  to  its  final  form,  or  something  in 
which  we  can  find  nothing  else  of  a  different  nature.  These  elements  are 
either  metallic  or  non-metallic.  The  element  nitrogen,  for  instance,  is 
a  gas  existing,  as  we  have  seen,  in  all  air.  Iron  is  a  metallic  element.  None 
of  the  elements  are  used  by  plants  as  pure  elements.  Nitrogen  must  be 
gotten  into  the  soil  in  combination  with  something  else  to  hold  it  there  and 
render  it  soluble  in  the  soil-water  so  that  plants  can  take  it  up,  for  the  ordi- 
nary green  plants  cannot  use  the  free  nitrogen  gas.  Nor  can  they  use  a  metal 
like  iron,  until  it  is  acted  upon  by  the  acids  and  made  into  an  oxide  or  a 
sulphate,  and  even  then  they  use  very  little  of  it.  It  has  been  found  by  care- 
fully conducted  experiments  that  plants  cannot  grow  without  a  supply  in  the 
soil  of  some  combination  of  the  following  elements:  Nitrogen,  potassium, 
magnesium,  calcium,  iron,  phosphorus  and  sulphur.  As  we  have  already 
said,  while  iron  is  essential,  it  is  used  in  very  small  quantities,  and  all  soils 
in  which  plants  make  green  leaves  will  be  found  to  contain  an  abundance  of 
iron.  Magnesium  and  calcium  (the  element  from  which  lime  is  formed)  are 
also  generally  in  abundance  for  all  the  needs  of  them  as  plant  food  direct. 
Of  the  further  use  of  lime  we  will  speak  more  fully  hereafter. 

(46) 


Plant  Food — 47 

The  elements  which  become  deficient  in  the  soil  through  long  cultivation 
and  the  removal  of  crops  are  nitrogen,  potassium  and  phosphorus.  Any 
one  familiar  with  the  composition  of  commercial  fertilizers  knows  that  it  is 
these  elements  in  some  combination  which  give  them  value. 

Nitrogen  must  be  changed  into  the  form  of  nitrate ;  that  is,  some  combi- 
nation of  nitric  acid  with  lime  or  potash,  making  a  neutral  salt,  before  green- 
leaved  plants  can  take  it  as  food.  Potassium  must  be  changed  by  oxidation 
into  potash  in  order  that  it  may  be  dissolved  in  the  soil-water.  Phosphorus 
must  be  in  the  form  of  phosphoric  acid,  for  the  element  phosphorus  burns 
up  at  once  on  exposure  to  the  air.  It  is  generally  combined  with  calcium, 
making  the  phosphate  of  lime,  an  insoluble  compound,  which  is  rendered 
soluble  by  sulphuric  acid ;  and  thus  gives  us  a  superphosphate  of  lime,  which 
is  available  to  plant  life. 

Phosphoric  acid  is  a  compound  of  phosphorus,  oxygen  and  hydrogen, 
but  in  phosphates  the  metallic  bases  replace  the  hydrogen.  Nitrification,  or 
the  transformation  of  organic  matter  into  nitrates  so  that  green  plants  can 
get  nitrogen,  is  carried  on  by  minute  organisms  in  the  soil,  and  the  life  of 
these  organisms  depends  on  the  presence  of  the  organic  matter  in  the  soil; 
making  it,  as  we  have  seen,  a  living,  rather  than  a  dead  soil.  Of  this  process 
of  nitrification  we  will  treat  more  fully  further  on. 


CHAPTER  YI. 
SOURCES  OF  FERTILIZING  MATERIALS. 

SOURCES  OF  NITROGEN. 

Nitrogen,  as  we  have  seen,  is  a  gaseous  substance  which  makes  up  for- 
fifths  of  the  atmosphere,  mingling  with  and  diluting  the  oxygen  so  that  it  can 
be  breathed,  but  never  combining  with  it  under  ordinary  conditions.  It  is 
the  oxygen  of  the  air  upon  which  animals  depend  for  respiration,  but  it  must 
be  diluted  for  this  purpose,  and  hence  the  nitrogen  is  mixed  with  it,  though 
nitrogen  takes  no  part  itself  in  respiration.  Plants  even,  which  need  nitrogen 
as  food,  will  die  if  confined  in  nitrogen  gas  alone.  Ammonia  is  a  hydrate 
of  nitrogen  which  acts  as  a  base  in  connection  with  acids.  Thus  with  sul- 
phuric acid  it  forms  the  sulphate  of  ammonia,  with  carbonic  acid,  the  car- 
bonate of  ammonia,  which  is  the  ammonia  we  smell  so  strongly  escaping  from 
a  heating  manure  pile  exposed  to  the  weather.  Manufacturers  of  fertilizers 
always  like  to  print  the  percentage  of  ammonia  on  their  bags  rather  than  that 
of  the  actual  nitrogen,  as  the  figures  look  larger.  When  you  find  the  per- 
centage of  ammonia  thus  on  a  bag  you  can  get  the  true  amount  of  nitrogen  by 
multiplying  the  ammonia  per  cent,  by  0.8235.  Thus  if  the  bag  has  2  per 
cent,  ammonia  printed  on  it,  this  means  that  there  is  but  1.647  per  cent  of 
actual  nitrogen. 

The  source  from  which  the  nitrogen  comes  is  a  very  important  matter  to 
the  purchaser  of  the  fertilizer,  since  chemical  analysis  may  show  that  there  is 
a  large  percentage  of  nitrogen  present,  but  at  the  same  time  it  may  be  almost 
entirely  useless  because  in  an  unavailable  form,  and  all  that  chemical  analysis 
can  tell  you  is  that  it  is  there.     Hence  it  is  important  to  know  from  what 

(48) 


Sources-  of  Fertilizing  Materials — 49 

source  the  nitrogen  is  obtained.  Pulverized  leather  scraps,  hoofs,  horn 
shavings,  hair,  will  show  on  analysis  a  good  percentage  of  nitrogen,  but  in 
such  a  form  that  plants  cannot  use  it,  being  insoluble.  Hence  the  sourcG  of 
the  nitrogen  is,  perhaps,  of  more  importance  than  the  actual  amount. 

There  is  at  all  times  a  very  small  and  uncertain  amount  of  nitrogen  in 
the  form  of  ammonia  in  the  air.  It  is  believed  that  plants  do,  to  some  extent, 
absorb  some  of  the  ammonia,  but  it  has  never  been  proved  that  they  do. 
But  there  are  varying  amounts  brought  to  the  soil  and  within  reach  of  the 
roots  in  the  rain  water.  Then,  too,  during  thunder  storms,  some  of  the 
nitrogen  of  the  air  is  converted  by  electricity  into  nitrous  acid, 
which  is  further  transformed  into  nitric  acid,  and  this  in  the 
soil  forms  the  nitrates  of  lime,  magnesia  and  other  bases.  It  has  been  stated 
that  this  formation  of  nitric  acid  in  the  air  is  the  only  source  of  the  combined 
nitrogen  in  the  earth,  but  later  studies  of  the  work  of  soil  bacteria  have 
developed  the  fact  that  there  are  other  and  more  powerful  agencies  at  work 
in  the  getting  of  the  free  nitrogen  into  a  form  that  plants  can  use.  It  has 
been  estimated  that  in  this  country  about  six  pounds  per  acre  of  nitrogen 
are  brought  to  the  soil  annually  in  the  rainfall,  in  the  forms  of  ammonia  and 
nitric  acid. 

But  the  greatest  source  of  the  nitrogen  in  the  soil  is  in  the  black,  organic 
decay  which  we  call  humus.  A  soil  well  filled  with  the  decay  of  plant  and 
animal  life  will  have  a  large  nitrogen  content,  while  a  soil  from  which  all  the 
humus  has  been  used  up,  or  burnt  out,  will  have  very  little  nitrogen.  This 
accounts  for  the  superior  fertility  of  freshly  cleared  land.  It  is  true  that  the 
nitrogen  contained  in  the  humus  is  not  at  once  in  a  condition  to  serve  as  plant 
food,  but  it  furnishes  food  for  millions  of  microscopic  plants  known  as  bac- 
teria, which  are  the  means  of  carrying  on  the  process  called  nitrification, 
through  which  the  organic  matter  is  broken  down  and  its  ammonia  changed 
into  nitrites  and  then  into  nitrates,  which  last  is  the  form  in 
which  green  plants  can  use  it.  A  soil,  then,  which  contains  a 
large  percentage  of  humus  may  be  properly  called  a  living  soil, 
while  one  in  which  there  is  no  humus,  and  Irom  which  the 
nitrifying  bacteria  have  been  starved  out  and  have  died,  may  be  well  called 
a  dead  soil.  Nitrogen  is  an  essential  element  in  all  living  matter  and  the 
absence  of  nitrogen  means  death  either  in  animals  or  plants. 

From  whence,  then,  are  we  to  get  the  various  combinations  of  nitrogen 
needed  in  our  complete  fertilizers?  It  is  always  the  element  that  gets  away 
from  us  most  rapidly  in  the  soil,  for  if  it  is  not  taken  up  by  plants  when  it 
gets  into  the  available  form  of  a  nitrate,  it  quickly  leaches  away  from  the  soil, 
and  therefore  we  need  to  frequently  renew  the  nitrogen  in  the  soil. 


50 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

All  organic  matter,  as  we  have  seen,  contains  nitrogen.  But  this  can  only 
be  used  by  plants  after  the  substance  has  completely  decayed  and  the  soil 
bacteria  have  transformed  it  into  a  nitrate.  The  rapidity,  then,  with  which 
any  organic  matter  decays,  determines  its  value  in  plant  feeding.  Some 
forms,  as  we  have  noted,  such  as  leather  scraps,  horn  meal,  etc.,  decay  so  very 
slowly  that  their  nitrogen  is  of  little  use  to  plants,  while  other  forms  decay 
rapidly  and  soon  come  into  an  available  shape. 

Pulverized  fish  scraps  from  the  fish  oil  factories  along  the  coast,  or  from 
the  refuse  of  the  fish  canning  houses,  form  a  valuable  source  of  organic 
nitrogen.  The  article  made  by  the  regular  fish  oil  factories  along  the 
Atlantic  coast  is  a  richer  article  than  that  made  from  the  refuse  of  the  pack- 
ing houses,  since  the  whole  of  the  fish,  after  the  oil  is  extracted,  goes  into  the 
scrap,  which  is  ground  from  the  pressed  cake.  In  some  sections  there  are 
other  refuse  matters  from  the  sea  used  in  the  making  of  fertilizers,  such  as 
crabs,  but  this  cuts  a  very  small  figure  in  the  general  market  and  is  available 
to  few. 

One  of  the  very  best  sources  of  organic  nitrogen  is  the  blood  from  the  great 
abbatoirs,  or  slaughter  houses,  where  animal  products  are  packed  for  com- 
merce. It  is  not  only  rich  in  nitrogen,  but  it  is  in  a  form  that  decays  very 
rapidly  in  the  soil,  and  soon  reaches  an  available  form.  It  is  important, 
however,  to  note  the  character  of  the  dried  blood  offered  for  sale,  since  it  may 
contain  all  the  way  from  6  to  14  or  15  per  cent,  of  nitrogen.  The  best 
grade  is  always  of  a  red  color.  If  black,  it  shows  that  it  has  been  charred  in 
the  drying,  and  has  assumed  more  the  character  of  leather,  hence  is  less 
readily  decayed,  and  has  lost  some  nitrogen. 

Probably  the  cheapest  form  in  which  organic  nitrogen  can  be  bought, 
at  least  in  the  South,  is  in  cotton  seed  meal.  This  contains  between  6  and  7 
per  cent,  of  nitrogen,  and  a  smaller  percentage  of  phosphoric  acid  and  potash. 
The  exact  percentages  will  be  found  in  the  table  of  analyses  of  the  various 
fertilizing  materials,  given  elsewhere.  It  is  now  largely  used  as  a  food  for 
cattle,  and  when  used  in  small  quantities,  in  connection  with  carbonaceous 
foods,  forms  a  valuable  part  of  a  ration.  But  there  is  a  practice  becoming 
common  in  the  South,  of  feeding  cattle  on  a  ration  entirely  of  cotton  seed 
meal  and  cotton  seed  hulls,  which  is  mischievous,  resulting  in  very 
inferior  beef,  and  in  butter  but  little  better  than  oleomargarine.  Properly 
used  the  cotton  seed  meal  is  a  valuable  addition  to  a  food  ration,  and  it  is  only 
the  bad  method  which  I  have  uniformly  opposed. 

Cotton  seed  meal  decays  rapidly  in  the  soil,  soon  becomes  nitrified  and 
available  to  plants.  In  some  parts  of  the  country  linseed  meal  is  used  to 
some  extent  as  a  fertilizer,  but  as  a  rule  the  price  is  prohibitive  for  this  pur- 


Sources  of  Fertilizing  Materials — 51 

pose ;  it  should  be  used  only  as  a  stock  food,  and  thus  enrich  the  home-made 
manure. 

Castor  pomace  is  a  valuable  source  of  nitrogen  in  limited  localities.  It 
usually  contains  nearly  6  per  cent,  of  nitrogen,  decays  rapidly  in  the  soil  and 
is  soon  available  as  plant  food. 

Another  product  of  the  great  western  slaughter  houses  is  tankage.  This 
is  composed  of  the  dried  and  pulverized  waste  matters  from  the  slaughtering 
of  animals,  and  is  of  a  very  varying  nature.  One  form  of  the  more  concen- 
trated tankage  may  contain  as  much  as  12  or  more  per  cent,  of  nitrogen,  while 
other  samples  will  not  have  more  than  4  to  5  per  cent,  of  nitrogen,  but  a 
larger  percentage  of  phosphoric  acid  than  the  concentrated  form.  The  price 
of  tankage,  of  course,  varies  with  its  composition,  and  a  low-priced  article  is 
always  one  that  has  the  least  percentage  of  nitrogen.  It  is,  therefore,  im- 
portant to  look  after  the  analysis  claimed  for  each  sample. 

About  the  most  worthless  form  in  which  one  can  get  organic  nitrogen 
is  in  the  meal  made  from  leather  scraps.  Analysis  will  show  that  this  con- 
tains a  large  percentage  of  nitrogen,  yet  it  is  almost  worthless  to  the  farmer, 
since  the  leather  so  long  resists  decay  in  the  soil.  The  making  of  a  fertilizer 
in  which  leather  is  used  as  a  source  of  nitrogen,  should  be  looked  upon  simply 
as  a  fraud.  In  the  same  class  should  be  placed  wool  and  hair  waste,  which 
can  only  be  made  available  by  dissolving  in  sulphuric  acid. 

From  the  fat  rendering  establishments,  where  the  dead  animals  from  the 
large  cities  are  utilized,  there  comes  dried  meat;  which  has  value  for  nitrogen 
nearly  as  high  as  that  of  the  dried  blood  from  the  slaughter  houses. 

Formerly  there  was  a  rich  deposit  of  natural  guano  with  a  very  high  per- 
centage of  nitrogen  on  the  Chincha  Islands,  on  the  coast  of  Peru.  But  this 
was  long  ago  exhausted,  and  though  we  have  occasionally  so-called  Peruvian 
guano  offered  for  sale,  it  is  far  inferior  to  the  old  article;  as  it  comes  from 
localities  where  rain  has  washed  out  a  large  part  of  the  nitrogen,  and  consists 
mainly  of  insoluble  phosphate  of  lime.  The  exhaustion  of  the  old  Peruvian 
guano  beds  gave  the  first  great  impulse  to  the  manufacture  of  commercial  fer- 
tilizers, so  that  now  the  natural  guanos  make  little  show  on  the  market,  and 
being  largely  of  a  phosphatic  nature  are  mainly  used  by  the  manufacturers  of 
fertilizers. 

When  any  of  these  organic  matters,  containing  nitrogen,  decay,  the  first 
result  is  the  formation  of  the  hydride  of  nitrogen,  or  ammonia,  from  the  com- 
bination of  hydrogen  and  nitrogen.  But  green  leaved  plants,  as  a  rule,  do 
not  use  nitrogen  in  the  form  of  ammonia.  The  bacteria  in  the  soil  which 
bring  about  what  is  known  as  nitrification,  break  down  the  ammonia  and  form 
the  nitrogen  into  a  nitrite.     Another  form  of  bacteria  then  takes  up  the  work 


52^ — Ceop  Growing  and  Crop  Fefjjing 

and  transforms  the  nitrite  into  a  nitrate,  which  is  the  form  in  which  green 
leaved  plants  use  nitrogen.  Ammonia  is  manufactured  as  a  by  product  in  the 
making  of  illuminating  gas,  and  also  in  the  manufacture  of  bone  charcoal 
for  the  sugar  refiners.  This  is  the  source  of  the  article  in  commerce  known 
as  the  sulphate  of  ammonia.  Large  quantities  are  now  made  also  in  the 
manufacture  of  coke  for  the  iron  furnaces.  '  In  the  sulphate  the  ammonia  is 
in  a  very  concentrated  form,  and  will  probably  become  more  largely  used 
as  the  price  is  reduced ;  though  with  many  plants  is  seems  at  times  to  exert  a 
poisonous  influence.  It  is  common  to  say  that  cotton  seed  meal  and  other 
organic  matters  have  a  certain  percentage  of  ammonia,  but  there  is  really  no 
ammonia  there  until  the  organic  matter  has  decayed  and  the  combination  of 
the  nitrogen  has  been  made  with  the  hydrogen.  The  more  correct  way  would 
be  to  give  the  percentage  of  nitrogen  in  the  matter  which  forms  ammonia 
in  decaying.  But,  as  we  have  said,  the  figures  for  ammonia  look  larger,  and 
hence  manufacturers  like  to  put  it  as  ammonia  in  their  claims.  Pure  sul- 
phate of  ammonia  contains  21.2  per  cent,  of  nitrogen. 

In  recent  years  there  have  been  large  discoveries  of  nitrogen  in  the  form 
of  a  nitrate  of  soda,  which  is  formed  .in  large  masses  in  certain  parts  of  the 
western  coast  of  South  America  where  no  rain  falls.  This  is  now  probably 
the  cheapest  source  of  nitrogen  for  fertilizing  purposes.  We  have  seen  that 
green  leaved  plants  use  nitrogen  in  the  form  of  a  nitrate,  and  that  the  organic 
nitrogen  must  be  changed  into  this  form  in  the  soil  before  they  use  it.  The 
nitrate  of  soda  being  already  in  the  nitrate  form  is  at  once  available  for  plant 
food.  As  it  rapidly  leaches  from  the  soil  in  the  rainfall  this  form  should 
only  be  used  while  plants  are  in  active  growth.  If  applied  during  the 
dormant  season  much  if  not  all  of  it  will  be  lost  by  leaching.  In  making  a 
complete  fertilizer  mixture,  if  nitrate  of  soda  is  used,  it  should  always  be  ac- 
companied by  a  due  proportion  of  organic  nitrogen  to  continue  the  supply 
after  the  nitrate  is  used  up. 

The  nitrate  is  useful  in  the  first  growth  of  the  plant  while  the  nitrifica- 
tion of  the  organic  matter  is  going  on,  as  it  is  immediately  soluble  and  quite 
concentrated.  It  is  often  sold  under  the  name  of  Chili  saltpetre,  (ordinary 
saltpetre  being  the  nitrate  of  potash)  and  contains  from  15  to  IB  per  cent, 
of  nitrogen.  Professor  Voorhees,  in  his  book  on  fertilizers,  weU  isays  that 
"The  practical  point,  and  the  one  of  prime  importance  to  the  farmer,  is,  then, 
to  know  how  to  estimate  the  relative  value  or  usefulness  of  these  different 
products,  what  is  the  rate  of  availability  as  compared  with  the  nitrate,  and 
thus  the  relative  advantage  of  purchasing  the  one  or  the  other,  at  the  ruling 
market  prices.  Eelative  values,  however,  cannot  be  assigned  as  yet,  though 
careful  studies  of  the  problem  have  been  made,  chiefly  by  what  are  l^nown  as 


Sources  op  Fertilizing  Materials — 53 

'vegetation  tests';  that  is,  tests  which  show  the  actual  amounts  of  nitrogen 
that  plants  can  obtain  from  nitrogenous  products  of  different  kinds,  when 
grown  under  known  and  controlled  conditions.  The  results  so  far  obtained, 
while  only  serving  as  a  guide,  indicate  that  when  nitrate  is  rated  at  100  per 
cent,  blood  and  cotton  seed  meal  are  about  70  per  cent.,  dried  and  ground 
fish  and  hoof  meal  G5  per  cent.,  bone  and  tankage  60  per  cent.,  and  leather, 
ground  horn  and  wool  waste  as  low  as  2  per  cent,  to  as  high  as  30  per  cent. 
These  figures  furnish  a  fair  basis  for  comparing  the  different  materials,  when 
used  for  the  same  purpose.  If,  for  example,  the  increased  yield  of  oats  due 
to  the  application  of  nitrate  of  soda  is  1,000  pounds,  the  yield  from  blood 
and  cotton  seed  meal  would  be  700  pounds,  the  yield  from  dried  ground  fish 
and  hoof  meal  would  be  650  pounds,  from  bone  and  tankage  600  pounds,  and 
from  leather,  ground  horn  and  wool  waste  from  20  to  300  pounds."  As  re- 
gards the  last  we  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  increase  would  be  nearer  nothing 
at  all. 

While  these  figures  may  be  useful,  we  would  suggest  that  the  cultivator 
cannot  depend  upon  the  same  results  in  practice  for  the  varying  conditions 
under  which  the  plant  food  is  applied,  and  the  atmospheric  condition. after 
the  application,  might  easily  make  the  soluble  nitrate  the  least  productive. 
The  practice  of  all  good  cultivators  is  to  use  the  nitrate  to  some  extent  in  a 
complete  fertilizer  mixture,  but  to  place  the  main  reliance  for  nitrogen  for 
the  crop  upon  the  organic  forms,  since  all  of  the  nitrate  of  soda  that  is  not 
used  at  once  is  rapidly  lost  to  the  soil  and  plants,  and  the  cultivator  who  de- 
pends for  nitrogen  on  the  nitrate  alone  will  often  be  disappointed  in  the 
result. 

In  a  number  of  experiments  made  at  different  Stations  it  has  been  shown 
that  sulphate  of  ammonia,  in  a  mixed  fertilizer  with  the  muriate  of  potash, 
acts  as  a  plant  poison.  In  fact,  in  certain  conditions  of  the  soil,  it  seems  that 
sulphate  of  ammonia  is  about  as  likely  to  do  harm  to  the  crop  as  to  benefit  it. 
Even  when  the  sulphate  of  ammonia  is  simply  mixed  with  stable  manure  it 
has  given  decidedly  injurious  effects.  When  mixed  with  the  muriate  of 
potash  there  is  a  combination  of  the  chemicals  and  the  chloride  of  ammonia 
is  formed,  which  is  injurious  to  vegetation.  Another  source  of  organic  nitro- 
gen which  is  available  to  the  farmers  in  some  localities,  is  the  sea  weed  which 
accumulates  on  the  sea  beach  after  storms,  and  which  is  largely  used  by  the 
farmers  near  the  ocean.  The  sea  weeds  decay  rapidly  and  furnish  large  per- 
centages of  nitrogen  and  potash,  but  are  lacking  in  phosphoric  acid.  They 
are  so  rich  in  potash  that  some  authorities  rank  them  among  potassic  manures, 
and  when  mixed  with  a  due  percentage  of  phosphates  they  furnish  a  fairly 
complete  fertilizer.     One  great  advantage  in  the  use  of  sea  weeds  is  the  fact 


54 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

that  they  bring  to  the  soil  no  weed  seeds.  The  salt  which  they  contain  may 
act  as  a  solvent  of  matters  in  the  soil  of  value  to  plant  life,  and  be  to  some 
extent  serviceable  in  destroying  fungi  and  insects  in  the  soil. 

barn  and  stable  manures. 

The  greatest  source  of  organic  nitrogen  on  the  farm  is,  of  course,  the 
manure  made  from  the  droppings  of  domestic  animals.  The  care  and  proper 
use  of  the  home-made  deposit  lies  at  the  very  foundation  of  successful  farm- 
ing. No  purchase  of  commercial  fertilizers  can  fully  atone  financially  for  a 
waste  of  this  home-made  article.  And  yet  there  is  no  one  thing  on  the  farm 
generally  so  badly  managed,  and  subjected  to  so  much  waste,  as  the  barnyard 
and  stable  manure.  It  has  been  estimated  that  if  the  manure  annually  pro- 
duced by  all  the  domestic  animals  kept  in  the  United  States  was  properly 
saved,  its  total  value  would  be  over  two  thousand  millions  of  dollars.  Prof. 
Eoberts  of  Cornell  has  estimated  that  on  a  farm  on  which  are  kept  4  horses,  20 
cows,  50  sheep  and  10  pigs,  there  should  be  produced  during  seven  months  of 
the  winter  and  colder  part  of  the  year  at  least  $250  worth  of  manure,  valuing 
it  at  the  rate  paid  for  phosphoric  acid,  potash  and  nitrogen  in  commercial 
fertilizers.  And  it  is  further  estimated  that  one-third  of  the  value  of  all  the 
manure  made  is  annually  lost  through  bad  management.  This  means  an 
annual  loss  of  nearly  seven  hundred  millions  of  dollars  in  the  United  States, 
or  an  average  annual  loss  on  each  farm  of  $83.33.  This  means  that  to  keep 
up  the  waste  made  from  selling  crops  this  loss  makes  necessary  the  purchase 
of  that  much  more  of  plant  food  to  replace  the  loss,  if  fertility  is  to  be  main- 
tained. Every  ton  of  hay  sold  from  the  farm  removes  plant  food  to  the  value 
of  $5.10  if  bought  in  a  commercial  fertilizer.  Every  ton  of  wheat  carries 
off  from  the  farm  plant  food  to  the  value  of  $7.75.  Or,  as  Dr.  Armsby  has 
said,  "A  farmer  who  sells,  for  example,  $10  w^orth  of  wheat  sells  with  it  about 
$2,58  worth  of  the  fertility  of  his  soil.  In  other  words,  when  he  receives  his 
$1 0  this  amount  does  not  represent  the  net  receipts  of  the  transaction,  for  he 
has  parted  with  $2.58  of  his  capital,  that  is,  of  the  stored  up  fertility 
of  his  soil ;  and  if  he  does  not  take  this  into  account  he  makes  the  same  mis- 
take a  merchant  would  should  he  estimate  his  profits  by  the  amount  of  cash 
which  he  received  and  neglect  to  take  an  account  of  stock."  But  if,  instead 
of  selling  all  the  products  of  the  farm,  a  large  part  is  retained  and  fed  thereon 
to  animals  and  the  droppings  carefully  saved,  a  large  part  of  this  fertility  is 
retained  on  the  farm.  Then,  too,  where  the  entire  product  of  a  farm  is  not 
only  fed  upon  it,  but  some  food  which  was  grown  on  other  land  is  purchased 
for  animals,  the  farm  may  be  kept  improving  without  the  purchase  of  plant 


Sources  or  Fertilizing  Material — 55 

food  in  an}^  other  way.     Such,  however,  can  seldom  be  the  case  except  in 
limited  localities  where  the  butter  dairy  is  the  sole  business. 

Hence,  in  the  great  majority  of  cases,  it  is  necessary  to  supplement  the 
home-made  accumulation  with  commercial  fertilizers.  But  the  farmer  who 
neglects  to  save  and  care  for  in  the  best  manner  all  the  home-made  manure 
is  neglecting  the  true  source  of  riches  on  the  farm.  A  great  deal  of  the 
neglect  of  home-made  manure  has  doubtless  arisen  from  the  ease  with  which 
fertilizers  can  be  gotten  on  the  market,  and  over  large  portions  of  the  country, 
especially  in  the  Cotton  States,  there  has  beeiX:  an  utter  neglect  of  stock  feiedrj 
ing,  and  an  entire  dependence  on  the  commercial  fertilizers.  Year  after 
year  the  same  crop  is  planted  on  the  same  land,  and  the  chances  are  taken 
as  to  the  result  from  the  dribbling  of  a  little  fertilizer  in  the  furrows.  This 
gambling  in  fertilizers  has  brought  ruin  to  many  a  fair  acre  in  the  South, 
where  proper  farming  and  the  feeding  of  cattle  would  have  brought  fertility 
and  riches  to  soil  and  farmer.  The  constant  use  of  commercial  fertilizers  on 
the  soil,  and  the  clean  culture  of  the  crop,  has  robbed  the  soil  of  its  humus, 
and  put  it  into  a  bad  mechanical  condition,  in  which  the  fertilizers  no  longer 
have  the  power  to  produce  the  results  they  would  under  different  soil  condi- 
tions. One  of  the  greatest  values  of  barnyard  manure  is  in  the  humus-making 
material  combined  in  it,  which  makes  it  more  retentive  of  moisture,  improves 
its  mechanical  condition,  and  furnishes  food  for  the  microscopic  plants  that 
carry  on  the  process  of  nitrification  in  the  soil  and  prevent  its  becoming 
a  dead  soil.  Into  this  lifeless  condition  much  of  the  cotton  land  of  the  South 
has  now  been  changed,  and  men  say  "we  cannot  grow  good  crops  because  our 
land  is  poor,^'  when  it  is  poor  farming  which  has  made  it  poor.  If  the  farm 
ever  was  fertile,  the  acknowledgement  that  it  is  now  poor  is  evidence  that  the 
owner  is  responsible  for  its  condition. 

But  there  are  various  qiialities  of  the  farm  manure  as  well  as  of  commer- 
cial fertilizers.  Manure  from  half  starved  animals  and  those  fed  on  low 
grade  foods  that  merely  serve  to  keep  life  in  them,  has  very  little  value.  The 
quality  of  the  manure  made  varies  with  the  quality  of  the  food  fed.  Rich 
food  makes  rich  manure,  and  vice  versa.  The  dried  excrement  of  horses  and 
cattle  is  nearly  one-half  the  amount  of  the  dry  food  consumed.  One  hundred 
pounds  of  dry  matter  in  the  food  consumed  by  horses  will  make  210  pounds 
of  manure,  containing  77.5  pounds  of  moisture.  Add  to  this  the  weight  of 
the  bedding,  about  six  and  one-half  pounds  per  day,  in  order  to  get  the  total 
amount  of  the  manure.  It  has  been  estimated  that  a  well  fed  work  horse 
will  produce  50  pounds  of  manure  per  day,  or  six  and  a  half  tons  per  year, 
that  can  be  saved.  The  manure  of  cows  and  heat  cattle  will  contain  on  an 
average  87.5  per  cent,  of  water.     A  steer,  wei<rhing  1,000  pounds  and  con- 


56-— Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

suming  27  pounds  of  dry  matter  per  day,  would  produce  about  20  tons  of 
manure  a  year.  A  sheep  will  produce  about  three-fourths  of  a  ton  of  manure 
yearly,  and  a  pig  from  two  to  three  tons.  The  following  table  gives  the 
analysis  of  the  various  manures  and  their  value  per  ton: 


Water 


Nitrogen 


Phos.  Acid 


Potash 


Value 
per  ton 


Sheep 
Calves 
Pigs  . . 
Cows  . 
Horses 
Hens  . 


59.52  per  cent. 
77.73  per  cent. 
74.13  per  cent. 
75.25  per  cent. 
48.69  per  cent. 
56.00  per  cent. 


0.768  per  cent. 
0.497  per  cent. 
0.840  per  cent. 
0.426  per  cent. 
0.490  per  cent. 
0.80  to  2  per 
cent. 


0.391  per  cent. 
0.172  per  cent. 
0.390  per  cent. 
0.290  per  cent. 
0.260  per  cent. 
0.50  to  2  per 
cent. 


0.591  per  cent. 
0.532  per  cent. 
0.320  per  cent. 
0.440  per  cent. 
0.480  per  cent. 
0.80  to  0.90 
per  cent. 


$3.30 
2.18 
3.29 
2.02 
2.21 

7.07 


These  figures  will  not  represent  the  value  of  ordinary  manure  allowed  to 
leach  away  its  value  under  the  eaves,  but  of  manure  from  highly  fed  animals, 
carefully  preserved,  liquid  and  solid,  and  protected  from  rain  and  firing. 
The  urine  is  the  most  valuablQ  part  of  the  excrement  of  animals.  The  solid 
manure  contains  the  undigested  part  of  the  food,  and  matter  that  is  in  a  more 
or  less  insoluble  state,  while  the  urine  contains  the  matters  that  have  been 
fully  digested  and  which  are  in  a  soluble  condition.  The  composition  of  the 
urine,  like  that  of  the  solid  portion,  varies  with  the  age  of  the  animals  and 
the  quality  of  the  food  consumed.  There  is  a  far  higher  percentage  of  nitro- 
gen in  the  urine  and  less  phosphoric  acid.  In  fact,  the  urine  of  horses  and 
cattle  contains  hardly  any  at  all.  But  it  abounds  in  potash  and  soda.  It  is 
always  best  to  use  it  mixed  with  the  solid  manure,  which  contains  phosphates. 
Water  that  has  leached  from  a  pile  of  mixed  manure  is  always  a  better  fertil- 
izer than  urine  alone,  as  it  has  taken  up  the  phosphates  with  the  other  con- 
stituents. As  we  have  said,  the  composition  of  the  manure  depends  largely 
on  the  kind  of  food  used.  It  the  food  is  of  a  nitrogenous  nature  and  is  easily 
digested,  the  nitrogen  in  the  urine  will  greatly  predominate ;  but  if  the  food 
is  imperfectly  digested,  the  larger  percentage  may  be  in  the  solid  dung.  A 
horse  fed  on  poor  hay  will  show  more  nitrogen  in  the  dung  than  in  the  urine. 
But  a  small  portion  of  the  nitrogen,  phosphoric  acid  and  potash  supplied  in 
the  food  is  assimilated  and  retained  in  the  animal  body.  Hence  the  value 
of  the  manure  depends  very  largely  on  the  nitrogen  content  of  the  food  and 
its  richness  in  the  other  forms  of  plant  food.  With  animals  which  have  com- 
pleted their  growth  and  made  their  bony  skeleton,  and  which  are  simply  hold- 
ing their  own  as  regards  weight,  neither  losing  nor  gaining,  the  manurial  con- 
stituents of  the  food  are  practically  all  returned  in  the  manure.     Figuring 


Sources  of  Fertilizing  Materials — 5T 

from  this  base,  it  has  been  shown  that  the  manure  from  feeding  a  ton  of  wheat 
bran  will  have  a  value  of  $12,50,  and  fed  to  milch  cows  will  have  75  per  cent, 
of  this  value.  While  no  such  value  is  ever  recovered,  even  with  the  best  treat- 
ment of  the  manure,  these  figures  show  the  importance  of  the  best  care,  since 
the  most  costly  part,  the  nitrogen,  gets  away  so  rapidly.  The  chief  value  of 
the  home-made  manure  is  in  the  nitrogen  it  contains,  and  in  the  capacity 
it  has  for  the  nitrification  of  its  organic  matter  in  the  soil.  It  is  this  organic 
matter  in  the  stable  and  barnyard  manure  which  gives  it  its  chief  advantage 
over  the  commercial  fertilizers.  We  can  get  nitrogen  in  a  far  more  available 
form  in  the  fertilizers,  but  will  lose  the  beneficial  mechanical  effect  of  the 
organic  matter  in  the  manure.  Still,  although  admitting  the  great  value  of 
the  home-made  manure  as  a  source  of  nitrogen,  and  the  importance  c^  saving 
it  in  the  best  manner,  I  have  long  been  of  the  opinion  that  there  is  too  much 
of  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  some  writers  to  make  a  sort  of  fetich  of  a 
manure  heap,  and  to  advise  the  application  of  more  labor  than  the  manure 
is  worth  to  the  piling,  turning  and  composting  of  manure.  The  manure  of 
the  farm,  while  a  valuable  thing,  and  an  article  not  to  be  wasted,  has  not  a 
value  that  will  repay  the  putting  of  the  amount  of  labor  on  it  which  some  ad- 
vise. Take  care  of  the  manure,  and  get  it  as  soon  as  possible,  out  on  the  land 
where  plants  arc  waiting  to  use  it.  On  a  farm  on  which  a  proper  rotation  is 
practiced  there  is  always  a  place  to  spread  the  manure.  In  the  North,  where 
it  is  impracticable  to  haul  out  the  manure  during  the  winter  months,  the  best 
way  to  save  it  is  to  have  all  animals  in  box  stalls,  or  in  covered  barnyards, 
with  plenty  of  litter,  allow  the  manure  to  be  packed  down  under  foot,  and  let 
it  remain  undisturbed.  In  this  condition  it  will  not  heat  seriously  and  will 
lose  less  than  in  any  other  way.  But,  by  all  means,  abandon  the  silly  practice 
of  throwing  it  out  the  stable  windows,  in  piles,  to  heat  and  wash  away  in  the 
rain. 

The  extent  to  which  the  keeping  of  live  stock  and  the  saving  of  manure 
is  neglected  in  the  South  Atlantic  Cotton  States  wouM  be  amazing  to  the 
farmers  of  the  North  and  West,  who  have  so  long  been  brought  up  to  consider 
the  feeding  of  stock  and  the  handling  of  manure  a  necessary  part  of  farm 
life.  Thousands  of  cotton  farms  in  this  section  have  no  stock  on  them  but  the 
mules  that  till  the  crop,  and  in  many  cases  even  the  provender  for  these  is 
bought  and  hauled  to  the  place.  There  is  evidence  in  many  sections,  how- 
ever, of  improvement  in  this  respect,  and  these  conditions  are  usually  found 
among  the  tenant  ^'croppers"  rather  than  among  the  farm  owners.  Still,  the 
great  need  of  the  South  Atlantic  States  is  live  stock.  It  has  been  stated  by 
competent  authority  that  the  States  of  North  and  South  Carolina  grow  three 
bales  of  cotton  for  every  cow  kept,, while  Texas,  which  produces  the  largest 


58— Crop  Growing  AND  Crop  Feeding 

part  of  the  cotton  crop,  raises  three  cows  to  every  bale  of  cotton  she  produces. 
Until  the  farmers  of  the  South  Atlantic  cotton  country  change  all  this  and 
get  to  the  same  proportion  between  stock  and  cotton  there  will  be  no  real 
and  permanent  advancement  in  the  development  of  their  agricultural  capa- 
bilities. No  matter  how  valuable  and  convenient  the  commercial  fertilizers 
may  be,  nor  how  much  they  may  accomplish  for  the  improvement  of  the  soil 
in  the  hands  of  the  wise  farmer,  they  will  never,  with  the  great  mass  of  the 
farmers,  avail  as  much  for  permanent  improvement  as  home-made  manures. 
The  great  evil  connected  with  the  failure  to  grow  forage  and  feed  live 
stock  in  the  South,  is  the  continuation  of  the  ruinous  credit  system.  If  our 
farming  was  more  diversified  and  systematic,  and  there  was  not  that  sole 
dependence  on  the  cotton  crop,  which  is  still  largely  the  case,  notwithstanding 
the  great  improvement  made  in  many  places;  there  would  be  sources  of  in- 
come from  the  stock  that  would  enable  the  farmier  to  get  on  a  cash  basis  in 
his  farming,  and  thus  immensely  reduce  the  cost  of  the  cotton  crop  to  the 
'grower.  Tn  a  section  where  the  most  valuable  forage  crop  is  at  the  same  time 
a  soil  improver,  and  where  nature  has  been  lavish  in  the  great  variety  of  food 
crops  that  can  be  produced  for  the  feeding  of  cattle  and  the  accumulation  of 
manure,  the  cities  and  towns  are  supplied  with  beef  from  the  west  simply 
because  there  are  no  cattle  on  the  farms  to  make  beef  from.  The  cotton 
farmers  are  annually  buying  nitrogen  in  their  fertilizers  because  they  neglect 
the  sources  from  which  they  could  get  nitrogen  without  money  and  without 
price;  and  not  only  get  it  free  of  cost  but  make  a  profit  in  the  getting  of  it. 
Millions  of  dollars  are  spent  in  the  cotton  states  of  the  Atlantic  border  for 
nitrogen,  which,  if  spent  for  live  stock  and  the  growing  of  the  cow  pea,  would 
remain  to  bless  the  land  with  fertility  and  swell  the  purse  of  the  farmer. 
While  an  individual  may  here  and  there  be  able  to  show  a  profit  in  his  crops 
grown  without  the  aid  of  the  domestic  animals ;  the  result  on  the  community 
at  large  is  poverty  of  soil  and  purse.  Then,  too,  farm  life  without  stock  loses 
one  of  its  chief  attractions  to  the  young,  for  boys,  as  a  rule,  are  fond  of  ani- 
mals ;  and  if  we  want  to  keep  the  boys  on  the  farm  and  to  have  them  devote 
their  energies  to  the  improvement  of  the  land,  we  must  make  homes  instead 
of  mere  cotton  fields,  and  a  farm  without  cattle  and  other  stock  is  far  less 
homelike  than  one  on  which  due  attention  is  paid  to  these  sources  of  profit 
and  pleasure.  We  do  not  blame  a  boy  for  wanting  to  get  away  from  a  farm 
where  he  has  only  a  mule  to  drive  and  a  pair  of  wheels  to  ride  on,  and  the 
greatest  difficulty  we  have  in  inducing  young  men  to  study  scientific  agricul- 
ture lies  in  the  fact  that  they  have  never  seen  any  real  farming  done  at  home, 
and  they  have  come  to  consider  the  life  of  the  farm  hopeless;  so  the  young 
blood  of  the  South,  more  than  of  any  other  section,  is  rushing  away  from  the 


SouKCEs  or  Fertilizing  Materials — 59 

farm  to  the  factories  and  workshops,  and  the  men  who  should  be  the  means 
of  building  up  the  waste  places  are  abandoning  the  farms  to  desolation  and 
the  negro.  If  this  book  is  instrumental  in  any  way  in  inducing  some  of  these 
farmers  to  adopt  a  different  method,  it  will  be  well  worth  all  the  labor  that 
has  been  expended  upon  it. 

NO  need  for  buying  nitrogen. 

While  the  saving  and  using  of  all  the  nitrogenous  manures  made  on  the 
farm  is  an  important  part  of  the  farm  economy,  the  farmer  who  farms  intelli- 
gently and  practices  a  proper  rotation  of  crops,  need  never  buy  an  ounce  of 
nitrogen  in  any  shape  for  the  ordinary  farm  crops.  In  the  case  of  the  market 
gardener,  on  limited  areas,  and  with  crops  of  greater  value,  it  is,  of  course, 
important  to  heavily  fertilize  his  acres.  But  in  grain  and  grass  farming, 
the  farmer  who  realizes  what  the  legumes  will  do  for  him  need  never  expend 
a  penny  for  nitrogen,  and  in  fact,  can  not  only  get  all  he  needs  without  cost, 
but  can  make  a  profit  in  the  getting  of  it.  And  here  is  the  main  use  that  the 
farmer  has  for  the  commercial  fertilizers,  to  enable  him  better  to  practice  the 
true  method  of  acquiring  the  nitrogen  that  is  so  plentiful  in  the  air,  over 
every  acre,  in  all  localities.  No  part  of  the  country  has  a  monopoly  of  the 
aerial  nitrogen.  The  air  is  just  as  rich  over  the  poorest  acre  in  the  land  as 
over  the  most  fertile,  and  the  farmer  on  the  poor  farm  can  get  it  just  as 
readily  as  the  man  whose  acres  are  already  supplied  with  it.  While  nitrogen 
is  an  essential  thing  to  plant  life,  and  crops  cannot  be  grown  without  it,  it  is 
the  only  element  of  plant-food  that  we  can  get  without  buying,  and  the  one 
that  costs  the  most  when  we  do  buy  it  in  fertilizer.  Then,  when  we  can,  by 
a  proper  course  of  culture,  get  this  costly  article  which  is  so  much  needed, 
and  can  put  money  in  our  pockets  while  getting  it,  is  it  not  passing  strange 
that  farmers  should  spend  money  for  it? 

leguminous  plants  the  true  source  of  nitrogen  for  the  farmer 

For  many  years  farmers  knew  that  in  some  mysterious  way  clover  and  other 
plants  of  the  pea  family,  did  not  only  furnish  forage  for  feeding  animals, 
but  that  the  land  was  better  for  having  grown  the  crop.  Only  within  the 
past  few  years,  have  scientists  studied  closely  the  way  in  which  these  plants 
help  the  soil,  and  even  yet  very  little  is  accurately  known  of  the  exact  way  in 
which  the  work  is  done.  For  our  present  purpose,  however,  it  is  enough  to 
know  that  all  the  legumes  have  the  power,  by  means  of  little  microscopic 
plants,  which  inhabit  certain  swellings  or  nodules  on  their  roots,  to  get  the 


60 — Ceop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

free  nitrogen  of  the  air  combined  and  stored  in  the  form  of  organic  matter  in 
the  soil.  We  will  not  enter  into  a  discussion  of  the  exact  way  in  which  they 
do  it;  the  fact  is  that  no  one  knows  just  how  it  is  done.  But  it  is  enough  for 
the  farmer  to  know  that  it  is  done,  and  that  he  can,  by  the  growing  of  these 
plants,  get  a  supply  of  material  in  the  soil,  that  in  its  decay  will  give  nitrogen 
to  the  succeeding  crop  in  abundance.  But  the  very  plants  that  do  this  nitro- 
gen catching  for  him,  are  the  greediest  of  consumers  of  the  other  two  im- 
portant elements  of  plant-food  needed  in  most  soils,  phosphorus  and  potash. 
While  the  careful  saving  and  using  of  the  farm  yard  manures  is  an  important 
help  in  the  getting  of  nitrogen  in  the  soil,  the  manure  is  always  in  an  insuffi- 
cient supply,  and  is  poorer  in  the  other  elements  than  is  desirable.  Therefore, 
the  most  important  elements  which  a  farmer  must  buy  in  order  to  keep  up  the 
productivity  of  his  soil,  are  phosphorus  and  potassium  in  some  form.  These 
are  essential  to  the  growth  of  all  plants,  and  are  especially  serviceable  in 
encouraging  the  growth  of  the  legumes,  and  the  enabling  them  to  get  more 
of  the  costly  and  fleeting  nitrogen  for  us.  The  various  experiment  stations 
have  done  so  much  work  in  the  study  of  the  manurial  requirements  of  plants, 
and  the  effects  of  fertilizers,  that  there  has  grown  up  an  impression  among 
farmers  that  for  every  crop  planted,  some  complete  mixture  of  fertilizers 
must  be  applied.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  annual  application  of  commer- 
cial fertilizers  will  increase  the  crop  usually  grown;  but  true  farming  is 
the  getting  of  good  crops  at  the  least  margin  of  expense  consistent  with  the 
keeping  up  and  improving  the  condition  of  the  soil.  It  is  n6t  merely  growing 
big  crops,  but  the  most  profitable  crops,  too.  If  a  farmer  spends  $10  for  a 
fertilizer  that  gives  him  $10  worth  more  corn,  he  is  simply  buying  corn  at 
the  market  price.  He  would  better  have  left  that  $10  worth  alone  and  bought 
it  for  less  labor. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

PHOSPHORUS,  ITS  SOURCES  AND  USE  IN  PLANT  FEEDING. 

The  second  important  element  in  the  nutrition  of  plants  and  the  matur- 
ing of  crops  is  phosphorus.  This  element,  like  the  other  elements  which 
enter  into  the  feeding  of  plants,  is  never  used  as  a  pare  element,  but  always 
in  the  form  of  phosphoric  acid.  This  is  a  highly  oxidized  compound  of  hy- 
drogen and  phosphorus,  and  forms,  with  alkaline  bases  such  as  lime,  etc.,  salts 
known  as  phosphates.  The  most  commonly  available  form  is  the  phosphate 
of  lime.  This  is  a  large  constituent  of  the  bones  of  all  animals,  and  is  found 
in  nature  in  the  phosphatic  rocks  and  coprolites.  In  the  basic  process  of  steel 
making,  large  amounts  of  phosphates  are  separated  from  the  iron  ore  and  left 
in  the  furnace  slag,  and  this  slag  is  one  of  the  important  sources  of  phosphoric 
acid  for  fertilizing  purposes.  In  many  of  the  sea  islands  where  there 
is  a  heavy  rainfall,  the  guano  deposits  have  been  largely  composed  of  the 
phosphate  of  lime,  the  nitrogen  having  been  washed  away.  Large 
deposits  of  phosphatic  rock  are  found  all  along  our  South  Atlantic 
coast,  and  in  the  Mississippi  valley  and  elsewhere.  The  origin  of  these 
deposits  has  been  a  matter  of  much  discussion  among  geologists. 
The  idea  generally  prevails  among  most  farmers  that  these  are  the 
petrified  bones  of  extinct  animals,  but  this  is  far  from  being  correct, 
though  there  are  certainly  many  fossil  remains  found  associated  with 
the  phosphatic  rocks.  Phosphatic  guano  is  certainly  the  remains  of  the  ex- 
crement and  food  refuse  of  sea  birds,  and  coprolites  and  phosphatic  nodules 
are  thought  to  be  the  remains  of  animal  excrement.  But,  whatever  their 
origin,  the  importance  of  the  deposits  has  long  been  recognized;  for  the 
replenishing  of  our  soils  with  phosphates  is  one  of  the  greatest  of  the  problems 
that  confronts  the  cultivator,  since  in  all  cultivation,  and  in  the  raising  of 
domestic  animals,  the  phosphates  are  continually  being  removed  from  the 
farm.  Unlike  the  nitrogen  we  cannot  get  phosphates  from  the  air,  and  there 
are  but  two  ways  in  which  the  loss  to  the  farm  in  phosphates  carried  off  from 
it  can  be  made  good.  We  must  either  feed  on  the  farm  food  grown  elsewhere, 
or  we  must  buy  the  phosphates  when  they  are  deficient.  Inasmuch  as  the 
localities  are  few  where  the  feeding  of  purchased  food  can  be  made  a  profitable 

(61) 


62 — Crop  GtROWing  and  Crop  Feeding 

part  of  the  farm  economy,  the  renewing  of  the  phosphates  in  the  soil  becomes 
a  very  important  matter.  There  has  long  been  an  impression  among  farmers 
that  phosphoric  acid  from  animal  bones  is  more  valuable  than  phosphoric 
acid  from  rock  phosphates  or  other  sources.  But  thig  is  not  the  case.  A 
superphosphate  made  from  bones  will  contain  some  nitrogen,  and  hence,  will 
have  that  additional  value;  but  its  phosphoric  acid  is  not  a  whit  different 
from  the  phosphoric  acid  from  other  sources.  The  only  point  of  importance 
to  the  farmer  is  the  percentage  of  the  phosphoric  acid  which  is  soluble  in 
water,  and  is  hence  immediately  available  for  plant  feeding.  In  the  natural 
state,  the  phosphoric  acid  of  bones,  rock  or  furnace  slag  is  insoluble.  Then  if 
the  rock  is  finely  pulverized,  and  the  bone  (if  finely  pulverized),  the  bone  will 
be  the  more  quickly  available  of  the  two,  because  of  the  readiness  with  which 
it  decays  in  the  soil ;  and  the  fact  that  the  raw  bone  carries  with  it  a  consider- 
able percentage  of  nitrogen,  while  the  phosphatic  acid  rock  has  none  of  this. 
But  when  treated  with  sulphuric  acid  and  made  soluble,  the  acid  of  the  rock 
is  just  the  same  as  the  acid  of  the  bones  treated  in  the  same  way.  But  the 
prejudice  in  favor  of  the  bones  is  such  that  it  is  a  common  practice  among 
the  manufacturers  of  fertilizers  to  call  their  articles  bone  phosphate,  when, 
in  fact,  no  bones  have  ever  been  used  in  its  manufacture. 

The  great  source  of  the  phosphates  used  in  this  country  is  the  phosphatic 
rock  mined  from  the  land  or  dredged  from  the  river  beds  in  South  Carolina. 
Large  quantities  are  also  mined  in  Florida,  which  are  classified  as  "soft," 
"rock,"  "pebble"  and  "bowlder"  phosphates.  There  are  also  "apatites"  from 
Canada,  and  a  very  fine  quality  of  phosphatic  rock  from  Tennessee,  and  re- 
cently a  deposit  has  been  found  in  the  Juniata  valley  in  Pennsylvania. 

When  treated  with  sulphuric  acid  to  render  them  soluble  these  are  known 
as  acid  phosphate,  and  this  forms  almost  the  entire  source  of  the  phosphoric 
acid  used  in  the  making  of  fertilizers,  though  some  are  still  made  from  the 
refuse  bone  charcoal  which  has  been  used  in  the  refining  of  sugar.  A  minor 
source,  as  we  have  said,  is  the  slag  from  the  manufacture  of  steel  by  the 
basic  process.  This  is  known  as  "basic  slag,"  "Thomas  slag"  and  "odorless 
phosphate."  The  quantity  produced  in  this  country  of  this  last,  is  yet  too 
small  to  have  any  great  effect  on  the  market.  Much  of  the  tankage  from  the 
Western  slaughter  houses  has  large  percentages  of  bone  associated  with  the 
nitrogenous  matters,  and  this,  too,  is  frequently  treated  with  acid  to  render 
it  soluble.  Untreated  tankage  is  more  valuable  for  its  nitrogen  than  its  phos- 
phoric acid.  Bones  are  also  some  times  steamed,  by  which  means  a  large 
part  of  the  nitrogen  is  extracted,  which  has  the  effect  of  increasing  the 
percentage  of  phosphoric  acid  in  the  product.  Steamed  bone  may  contain  as 
much  as  28  per  cent,  of  phosphoric  acid  and  very  little,  if  any,  nitrogen.     It 


Phosphorus,  Its  Sources  and  Use  in  Plant  Feeding — 63 

will,  therefore,  have  a  larger  percentage  of  phosphoric  acid  than  raw  bone 
meal,  but  far  less  nitrogen ;  and  if  the  phosphoric  acid  is  what  we  are  after, 
the  steamed  bone  is  better  than  the  raw,  and  the  absence  of  nitrogen  should 
make  it  cheaper.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  phosphoric  acid  is  not 
in  an  immediately  soluble  condition,  though  through  the  rapid  decay  of  the 
bone  it  may  soon  become  so. 

The  Florida  soft  phosphates  are  not  available  .n  the  manufcture  of 
acid  phosphates,  and  hence,  many  efforts  have  been  made  to  get  farmers  to 
use  them  in  an  untreated  state.  An  article  called  "Natural  Plant  Food," 
was  some  time  ago  largely  advertised.  This  consisted  almost  entirely  of  the 
Florida  soft  phosphates,  with  some  insoluble  potash,  such  as  is  found  in  the 
green  sand  marl  of  New  Jersey.  It  has  been  found  that  on  a  soil  abounding 
in  humus,  and  in  an  acid  condition,  the  pulverized  phosphatic  rock  sold  under 
the  name  of  "floats"  acts  very  well,  especially  on  clover  and  other  legumes, 
but  that  liming  the  soil,  which  helps  the  success  of  the  clover,  renders  the 
phosphate  less  effective.  In  some  stations  the  insoluble  phosphoric  acid  is 
given  no  value  whatever,  while  at  other  stations  it  is  rated  at  2  cts.  per  pound, 
with  the  soluble  at  four  and  a  half  cents.  What  we  wish  particularly  to 
impress  upon  the  farmer,  is  the  fact  that  phosphoric  acid  from  any  source  is 
identically  the  same  thing,  and  the  only  question  that  concerns  him  is  what 
percentage  of  the  article  is  in  a  soluble  state,  for  it  is  this  which  is  to  give  him 
immediate  results  in  the  crop. 

BONE   MEAL   AS   A   SOURCE   OF   PHOSPHORIC    ACID. 

We  have  stated  that  phosphoric  acid  is  one  and  the  same  thing  no  matter 
from  what  source  it  comes,  and  that  the  only  thing  to  regard  is  the  percentage 
of  soluble  acid.  On  this  point  the  investigations  of  the  Massachusetts  Exper- 
iment Station  show  the  following  conclusions: 

1.  The  superior  VALUE  which  has  hitherto  been  accorded  to  undis- 
solved bone  meal  as  a  fertilizer  is  due  solely  to  the  nitrogen  it  contains. 

2.  Undissolved  bone  meal,  as  a  phosphate  fertilizer,  is  no  more  valuable 
than  the  raw  mineral  phosphates  (floats). 

3.  Hereafter  it  must  be  classed  with  the  latter,  rather  than  with  the 
high  grade  phosphates  containing  available  phosphoric  acid. 

4.  As  a  phosphate  fertilizer  it  yields  no  better  results  than  the  mineral 
phosphates,  whether  tried  alone  or  with  superphosphate,  on  loams  or  sandy 
soils,  on  soils  rich  or  poor  in  phosphoric  acid,  whether  with  grains  or  with 
turnips,  mustard  or  other  cruciferous  plants ;  either  in  the  first  or  second  crop. 

5.  The  various  kinds  of  bone  meal  show  no  essential  difference  in  these 
results.     In  experiments  made  by  Wagner  at  Darmstadt,  Germany,  the  phos- 


64 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

phorie  acid  in  the  form  of  acid  phosphate  gave  100  pounds  in  the  crop  to 
every  59  pounds  from  the  Thomas  slag,  and  8  pounds  from  the  same  quantity 
of  bone  meal,  and  in  three  years  the  results  from  the  bone  meal  application 
were  only  17  per  cent  of  those  from  the  acid  phosphate.  It  has  been  argued 
by  those  who  favor  the  use  of  bone  meal  that,  while  not  so  immediately  availa- 
ble, the  after  results  would  more  than  make  up  for  it.  Wagner  shows  that 
even  after  three  years  it  only  reached  to  17  per  cent,  of  the  crop  produced  at 
the  same  time  from  soluble  phosphoric  acid.  This  is  an  important  matter  to 
the  farmer,  since  bone  meal  is  a  far  more  costly  article  than  superphosphate. 
Aside  from  the  fact  of  the  slow  availability  of  the  phosphoric  acid  in 
bone  meal,  there  is  the  further  fact  that  it  is  very  hard  to  get  a  perfectly 
pure  bone  meal  except  in  States  where  the  inspection  is  very  rigid.  The 
writer  once  passed  an  establishment  in  a  large  Eastern  seaboard  city,  where 
the  sign  announced  "pure  bone  meal.''  There  was  a  "no  admittance''  sign 
at  the  door,  but  hearing  machinery  in  operation  I  ventured  to  peep  in.  An 
Irishman  who  was  tending  a  machine  grinding  oyster  shells  warned  me  to 
keep  out,  but  I  had  seen  all  that  I  was  after,  and  noted  the  place  as  one  to 
avoid  in  buying  bone. 

THOMAS  SLAG,  SLAG  MEAL,  BASIC  SLAG  AS  A  SOURCE  OF  PHOSPHORIC  ACID. 

These  names,  and  also  the  name  "odorless  phosphate'^  are  applied  to  the 
phosphate  obtained  from  the  slag  made  in  the  process  of  making  steel  by 
what  is  known  as  the  basic  process.  There  is  not  enough  of  it  made  in  this 
country  for  it  to  compete  with  the  rock  phosphates.  The  article  is  reduced 
to  a  fine  powder  and  is  not  treated  with  acid.  It  contains  usually  about  20 
per  cent,  of  phosphoric  acid  in  the  form  of  phosphate  of  lime,  or  the  same 
form  in  which  it  is  found  in  the  pulverized  phosphate  rock.  Whether  the 
phosphoric  acid  in  this  slag  meal  is  any  more  readily  available  than  that  in 
the  pulverized  phosphate  rock,  or  "floats,"  is  a  m&tter  not  as  yet  well  settled. 
In  most  of  the  country  the  rock  phosphates  are  cheaper. 

MARLS  AS  A  SOURCE  OF  PHOSPHORIC  ACID. 

The  name  marl  is  applied  to  certain  earthy  deposits  which  are  found 
along  our  Atlantic  coast.  These  vary  in  composition  from  those  consisting 
almost  entirely  of  the  carbonate  of  lime  from  the  decomposition  of  marine 
shells  to  those  like  the  green  sand  of  new  Jersey  and  the  Virginia  marls,  some 
of  which  contain  notable  percentages  of  phosphoric  acid  and  some  pot- 
ash.      Phosphatic  marls  have  phosphoric  acid  in  the  form  of  the  phos- 


Phosphorus,  Its  Sources  and  Use  in  Plant  Feeding — 65 

phate  of  lime  as  it  exists  in  the  phosphatic  rocks,  and  it  is  in  a  similarly 
insoluble  state,  while  the  potash  is. in  the  form  of  a  mineral  known  as  glau- 
conite,  and  is  also  insoluble  at  once.  Mr.  Ruffin,  of  Virginia,  whose  book 
on  calcareous  manures  was  for  many  years  the  standard  authority  on  the  sub- 
ject in  this  country,  attributed  the  effects  of  marl,  which  he  used  largely  on 
his  lands  in  Southeastern  Virginia,  to  the  lime  it  contained.  But  it  has  been 
shown  that  in  every  instance  the  most  valuable  marls  are  those  which  contain 
the  largest  percentages  of  phosphoric  acid,  though  shell  marls  are  also  valu- 
able as  a  source  of  lime  for  certain  soils. 

phosphatic  guano. 

After  the  exhaustion  of  the  rich  deposits  of  guano  in  the  Peruvian 
islands,  large  quantities  of  phosphatic  guano  were  brought  from  islands  in  the 
Carribean  Sea,  where  the  soluble  nitrogen  had  been  washed  out  by  rains,  leav- 
ing only  the  insoluble  phosphate  of  lime.  These  guanos  are  used  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  in  a  pulverized  state,  and  answer  about  the  same  purpose  as 
the  Florida  soft  phosphates  of  recent  days.  Most  of  these  guanos  are  not 
adapted  to  the  making  of  acid  phosphate,  and  they  are  now  little  used  since 
the  discovery  of  the  great  deposits  of  phosphatic  rock  in  North  and  South 
Carolina,  Florida  and  Tennessee. 

THE  GREAT  PHOSPHATE  ROCK  DEPOSITS 

The  phosphatic  rock  that  has  entered  more  largely  into  the  manufacture 
of  acid  phosphate  is  the  South  Carolina  rock.  This  is  pulverized  and  treated 
with  sulphuric  acid,  and  the  result  is  the  article  called  acid  phosphate,  which 
contains  usually  about  12  to  13  per  cent,  of  soluble  phosphoric  acid,  a  smaller 
percentage  of  what  is  called  "reverted"  phosphoric  acid,  or  acid  not  soluble 
at  once  in  water,  but  soluble  in  citrates.  The  soluble  and  the  reverted  phos- 
phoric acid  are  added  to  make  what  is  called  the  "available"  phosphoric  acid. 
Then  there  will  always  be  a  small  portion  of  the  phosphoric  acid  which  is  in- 
soluble. Some  Station  chemists  assign  no  value  to  this  in  their  valuations  of 
fertilizers,  while  others  value  it  at  2  cents  per  pound  when  the  available  is 
rated  at  4  cents.  This  is  the  fairer  valuation,  since  there  is  evidence  that  it 
does  finally  become  available  in  the  soil,  just  as  the  pulverized  rock  does. 

Large  deposits  of  phosphatic  rock  are  found  also  in  Florida,  much  of 
which  is  known  as  "soft"  phosphate,  and  is  not  available  for  dissolving  with 
sulphuric  acid,  and  strenuous  efforts  have  been  made  to  get  it  into  use  under 
the  name  "Natural  Plant  Food."  It  has  value,  if  one  has  time  to  wait  on  it. 
Another  important  deposit  of  phosphate  rook  hiis  more  recently  been  dis- 


66 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

covered  in  Central  Tennessee.  This  has  a  high  percentage  of  phosphate  of 
lime,  and  will  become  the  most  important  point  from  which  to  get  phosphoric 
acid  in  the  Central  Western  States.  Another  deposit  has  been  discovered  in 
the  Juniata  Valley  of  Pennsylvania,  but  whether  it  »vill  assume  any  com- 
mercial importance  is  not  yet  known.  Hard  phosphate  rock,  which  will  yield 
on  dissolving  with  sulphuric  acid  a  good,  drillable  acid  phosphate  will  always 
be  of  more  agricultural  value  than  those  not  adapted  to  this  purpose. 

While  phosphoric  acid  may  exist  in  the  form  of  iron  phosphate  and  of 
aluminum  phosphate,  the  only  form  in  which  it  is  available  in  the  manu- 
facture of  commercial  fertilizers  is  the  phosphate  of  lime.  This  is  the  form 
in  which  it  is  found  in  phosphatic  rock  and  in  animal  bones,  and  hence  manu- 
facturers, whose  product  does  not  contain  a  solitary  animal  bone,  are  very 
fond  of  printing  on  their  bags  the  statement  that  the  percentage  of  phosphoric 
acid  in  it  is  "equal  to  bone  phosphate;"  thus  leading  the  farmer  to  imagine 
that  there  are  bones  used  in  it,  as  they  think  that  farmers  value  phosphoric 
acid  from  bones  more  highly  than  the  same  thing  from  some  other  source. 
I  cannot  too  often  repeat  that  it  is  the  percentage  of  availability  that  the 
farmer  is  concerned  with,  and  not  whether  it  came  from  bones  or 
rock.  All  untreated  phosphates  are  insoluble  in  water,  and  untreated 
bone  will  become  available  more  readily  than  untreated  rock  phos- 
phate, because  it  decays  more  readily,  provided  both  are  in  an  equally  finely 
pulverized  state.  Many  farmers  have  declared  that  they  get  as  good  results 
from  the  pulverized  phosphates  as  from  the  acid  phosphate,  and  in  certain 
soils  this  may  be  the  case,  for  the  character  of  the  soil  has  much  to  do  with 
the  rate  in  which  the  phosphoric  acid  in  an  untreated  phosphate  becomes 
available.  In  a  soil  abounding  in  humus,  or  vegetable  decay,  the  phosphates 
will  become  soluble  more  readily  than  in  a  heavy,  clay  soil  deficient  in  organic 
decay.  In  the  porous  soil,  filled  with  humus,  the  oxidizing  influences  of  the 
air  have  free  access,  and  decay  proceeds  more  rapidly,  while  the  acidity  of 
such  soils  also  favors  the  change.  For  general  purposes  it  is  far  better,  how- 
ever, to  use  the  acid  phosphate  than  the  lower  priced  pulverized  rock  or  the 
iron  phosphate.  Professor  Voorhees  well  says  that,  "In  any  case,  animal 
bone,  or  finely  ground  mineral  phosphates,  cannot  be  depended  upon  to  fully 
meet  the  needs  of  quick  growing  crops  for  phosphoric  acid,  but  may  answer 
an  excellent  purpose  where  the  object  is  to  gradually  improve  the  soil  in  its 
content  of  this  constituent,  as  well  as  to  supply  such  crops  as  are  continuous, 
or  that  grow  through  long  periods,  as,  for  example,  meadows,  pastures,  and 
orchard  and  vineyard  crops."  That  is  to  say,  that  where  you  can  afford  to 
wait  and  where  you  want  long-continued,  slow  availability,  it  may  pay  to  use 
the  more  slowly  available  forms  of  phosphoric  acid,  but  where  you  want  the 


Phosphorus,  Its  Sources  and  Use  in  Plant  Feeding — 67 

effect  on  the  immediate  annual  crop  you  had  better  get  the  dissolved  rock  or 
acid  phosphate.  With  most  farmers,  the  question  of  immediate  returns  for 
the  expenditure  is  the  most  important  point. 

SOME  ERRONEOUS  POPULAR  NAMES. 

In  some  parts  of  the  country  farmers  call  all  commercial  fertilizers 
"phosphate."  This  is  an  error  which  all  should  rid  themselves  of  as  quickly 
as  possible.  The  term  phosphate  is  applicable  only  to  compounds  of  phos- 
phoric acid  and  a  base,  making  what  is  called  a  salt.  Thus  the  phosphate  of 
lime  is  a  salt  composed  of  a  certain  number  of  parts  of  lime  with  phosphoric 
acid.  A  commercial  fertilizer  in  which  the  phosphoric  acid  is  only  one  of  the 
constituents  cannot  correctly  be  called  a  phosphate.  It  is  simply  a  fertilizing 
mixture  in  which  phosphoric  acid  is  one  of  the  constituents.  The  proper 
term  to  apply  to  all  mixed  goods  is  commercial  fertilizer. 

Then,  too,  the  popular  name  "acid  phosphate"  as  applied  to  the  dissolved 
phosphate  rock  is  not  strictly  correct.  Phosphate  is  the  original  condition  in 
which  the  phosphoric  acid  is  found  in  the  rock.  When  dissolved  in  sulphuric 
acid  it  becomes  a  superphosphate.  But  the  term  "acid  phosphate"  has  be- 
come so  fixed  in  popular  use  that  it  answers  all  purposes,  and  suits  our  Ameri- 
can liking  for  brevity  better  than  the  longer  word,  superphosphate.  Super- 
phosphates, whether  made  from  rock,  bones  or  bone  charcoal,  are  identical, 
varying  only  in  the  percentage  of  phosphoric  acid  with  the  amount  in  the 
article  from  which  they  are  made.  Hence  a  superphosphate  made  from  bones 
will  have  a  higher  percentage  of  phosphoric  acid  than  one  from  rock,  but  one 
per  cent,  in  the  one  is  just  as  good  as  one  per  cent,  in  the  other.  Acid  phos- 
phate is  always  better  when  freshly  made  than  after  being  stored  for  a  long 
time,  since  there  is  a  tendency  to  reversion  to  a  less  soluble  form  in  long 
standing,  and  there  is  a  decrease  of  the  soluble  and  an  increase  of  the  form 
soluble  only  in  ammonium  citrate.  Acid  phosphate,  then,  which  has  been 
kept  over  a  season,  is  less  immediately  available  than  a  freshly  made  article. 
This  takes  place  more  readily  in  superphosphates  made  from  the  mineral 
phosphates  than  in  those  made  from  bones  or  bone  charcoal.  Superphos- 
phates made  from  bone  and  bone  charcoal  are  more  uniform  than  those  from 
mineral  phosphates,  and  their  phosphoric  acid  is  nearly  all  soluble,  while 
those  from  mineral  phosphates  may  run  all  the  way  from  12  to  14  per  cent, 
in  the  South  Carolina,  to  16  or  even  18  per  cent,  in  the  Tennessee.  Super- 
phosphates from  raw  animal  bone  usually  have  about  12  per  cent,  available 
phosphoric  acid,  and  about  5  per  cent,  insoluble,  but  having  also  a  percentage 
of  ammonia,  they  have  a  higher  value  commercially  than  the  dissolved  rock, 
but  their  agricultural  value  may  be  no  higher. 


68 — Crop  GtRowing  and  Crop  Feeding 

The  writer  has  frequent  inquiries  from  farmers  who  are  anxious  to  know 
whether  the  free  sulphuric  acid  that  they  are  told  remains  in  the  acid  phos- 
phate from  the  rock,  will  be  injurious.  The  fact  is  there  is  seldom,  if  ever, 
any  such  acid  in  a  well-made  superphosphate,  and  even  if  there  was  it  would 
at  once  seek  some  base  in  the  soil  and  be  changed  to  a  neutral  salt,  either  the 
sulphate  of  lime,  potash  or  magnesia,  according  as  one  or  the  other  may  be 
present  in  the  soil. 

It  has  been  found  that  where  superphosphates  have  long  been  used  freely 
the  phosphoric  acid  will  accumulate  in  the  soil  to  such  an  extent  that  further 
applications  have  no  effect.  This  has  been  the  case  in  a  large  section  of 
Eastern  North  Carolina,  where  the  farmers  say  that  they  no  longer  get  any 
returns  from  the  application  of  phosphates  to  their  cotton  crop.  The  fact 
is  that  the  soil  holds  on  to  phosphoric  acid  longer  than  anything  else  in  the 
way  of  plant  food,  and  does  not  allow  it  to  leach  away  as  the  nitrogen  is  apt 
to  do,  but  keeps  it  there  till  the  crops  call  for  it.  Hence  it  is  easy  to  see  that 
in  making  liberal  applications  of  phosphates,  whether  merely  pulverized  bone 
or  rock  or  dissolved  phosphate,  we  are  in  no  danger  of  serious  loss,  but  can 
depend  on  any  surplus  staying  there  till  wanted  by  the  crops.  Professor 
Voorhees  well  says,  "The  real  object  of  making  it  soluble  is  to  enable  its  better 
distribution.  If  it  were  possible  to  as  cheaply  prepare  the  dicalcic  (or 
reverted)  form  as  the  soluble,  it  would,  perhaps,  be  quite  as  useful  from  the 
standpoint  of  availability.  After  the  soluble  is  distributed  in  the  soil,  it  is 
fixed  there  by  combining  with  the  lime  and  other  minerals  present."  It  is 
thought  that  it  at  once  assumes  the  reverted  form,  and  that  in  the  presence 
of  an  abundance  of  lime  may  even  become  insoluble.  The  solubility  of  the 
phosphoric  acid  lasts  much  longer  in  a  light  soil  deficient  in  organic  matter, 
but  even  there  it  is  fixed  rapidly  enough  to  prevent  serious  loss.  Chemical 
analysis  of  the  drainage  waters  seldom  shows  any  loss  of  phosphoric  acid. 

THE   VALUE   OF   INSOLUBLE   PHOSPHATES. 

In  the  valuation  of  commercial  fertilizers,  as  we  have  noted,  some  of  the 
Experiment  Stations  place  no  commercial  value  on  the  insoluble  phosphoric 
aeiddn  a  fertilizer.  We  have  long  been  satisfied  from  our  own  experience 
that  this  is  an  error,  at  least  so  far  as  the  agricultural  and  crops-producing 
value  of  the  insoluble  phosphate  is  concerned.  Years  ago,  in  farming  on  a 
large-scale,  we  found  that  we  did  get  the  happiest  results  from  the  use 
of  the  phosphatic  guanos  from  the  Carribean  islands  in  which  the  phosphoric 
acid  was  all  insoluble.  True,  we  did  not  get  the  same  immediate  results  as 
from  the  use  of  the  dissolved  acid  phosphate,  but  the  final  result  was  as  good 
and  more  lasting,  and  when  these  insoluble  forms  of  phosphoric  acid  were 


Phosphorus,  Its  Sources  and  Use  in  Plant  Feeding — 69 

used  on  the  wheat  crop,  we  never  failed  to  get  large  returns  in  the  luxuriant 
stands  of  clover  that  followed,  though  the  effect  on  the  wheat  crop  direct  was 
not  so  apparent  as  when  the  acid  phosphate  was  used.  But  we  invariably  had 
more  difficulty  in  getting  a  good  stand  of  clover  after  the  use  of  the  acid  phos- 
phate than  we  did  after  the  use  of  the  insoluble  phosphoric  acid.  In  our  case 
stock  and  stock  food  was  the  chief  interest,  and  the  wheat  was  only  regarded 
as  a  means  for  paying  the  expense  of  getting  the  land  in  clover.  Where  im- 
mediate results  only  are  sought  it  may  be  best  to  use  the  dissolved  phosphate, 
but  where  final  results  in  the  clover  and  grass  are  of  more  importance,  then 
it  will  be  far  cheaper  and  perhaps  better  to  use  simply  the  pulverized  rock, 
or  what  is  known  as  "floats."  As  we  have  often  said,  where  one  can  afford 
to  wait  for  the  results  he  can  get  them  with  less  expenditure  of  money  in  the 
use  of  pulverized  rock  than  in  the  dissolved  article.  This  experience  has 
been  verified  by  some  experiments  made  at  the  Maryland  Agricultural 
Experiment  Station  and  published  in  a  recent  bulletin  of  that  Station.  They 
state  that  the  best  results  were  obtained,  in  the  long  run  at  least,  from  the 
use  of  the  insoluble  phosphates.  Not  having  this  bulletin  at  hand  we  cannot 
quote  from  it  direct,  but  believe  that  we  have  given  the  sum  of  their  results. 
The  fact  is  that  no  chemist  can  discover  just  what  is  taking  place  in  the  soil, 
even  with  what  may  be  put  there  in  what  he  calls  a  perfectly  soluble  state. 
The  soil  is  a  wonderful  laboratory,  in  which  the  forces  of  nature  are  always 
at  work,  making  new  combinations  and  bringing  about  changes  in  what  we 
put  there.  The  carbonic  acid  of  the  rain  water  is  nature^s  great  breaker  up  of 
combinations  and  former  of  new  ones,  and  what  exists  in  the  soil  in  one  state 
today  may  be  in  a  very  different  one  tomorrow.  It  is  always  safe,  then,  for 
the  farmer  to  question  his  soil  and  to  accept  the  results  it  gives  him,  for  he 
can  find  thus,  for  himself,  things  that  no  chemist  can  discover.  In  certain 
sections  of  Eastern  North  Carolina  observant  farmers  have  long  since  found 
that  they  got  no  results  for  the  use  of  phosphoric  acid  in  any  form,  but  that 
nitrogen  and  potash  always  gave  them  good  results.  Subsequent  investiga- 
tions by  the  Department  of  Agriculture  have  demonstrated  that  these  farmers 
are  right,  and  that  on  their  lands  the  chief  need  is  for  nitrogen  and  potash. 
Then,  since  by  good  farming  with  the  legumes  they  can  get  all  the  nitrogen 
they  need,  the  farmers  on  lands  where  phosphatic  marls  and  rocks  are  found, 
are  in  that  happy  condition  where  they  need  to  purchase  but  a  single  form  of 
plant  food  in  order  to  make  and  keep  their  lands  perennially  productive. 
There  may  be  other  sections  North  and  South,  where  similar  conditions  pre- 
vail, and  this  makes  it  all  the  more  important  that  farmers  should  experiment 
to  determine  the  manurial  needs  of  their  soils.  How  this  is  done  we  have 
tried  to  explain  elsewhere. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

POTASH. 

Potash  is  the  result  of  the  oxidation  of  the  element  potassium,  which  is 
one  of  the  metallic  elements.  In  former  days  all  the  potash  available  for 
manurial  purposes  was  that  which  is  contained  in  the  farm  manures  and  in 
wood  ashes.  These  are  still  valuable  sources  so  far  as  they  go,  but  they  are 
totally  insufficient  for  the  demands  of  modern  agriculture.  It  is  a  wonderful 
fact  in  the  economy  of  nature  that  stores  are  provided  to  come  into  use  as 
the  demand  for  them  arises.  The  vast  deposits  of  coal  were  not  discovered 
so  long  as  the  forest  met  all  the  requirements  of  man  for  fuel,  but  as  the  de- 
mand came  the  supply  was  at  hand  to  meet  it.  Just  so  with  the  potash. 
With  the  great  call  for  this  material  for  the  feeding  of  plants  on  our  long 
cultivated  soils,  there  was  discovered  a  vast  deposit  of  potash  in  the  salt  mines 
of  Germany,  in  the  form  of  sulphates  and  chlorides  of  potash.  These  mines 
are  now  the  great  source  of  the  world's  supply  of  potash,  and  it  has  been  found 
that  the  deposit  extends  over  a  much  larger  area  there  than  was  formerly  sup- 
posed, and  that  the  supply  is  practically  inexhaustible.  Doubtless  if  the 
German  supply  should  fail  there  will  be  discovered  other  deposits,  to  redeem 
the  promise  to  mankind  that  seed  time  and  harvest  shall  not  fail. 

POTASH  AN  ESSENTIAL  PLANT  FOOD. 

Experiments,  carefully  conducted,  have  shown  that  potash  is  one  of  the 
things  which  plants  cannot  grow  without.  In  a  soil  or  a  solution  entirely 
free  from  potash  a  seed  will  germinate  and  grow  to  the  extent  of  the  potash 
stored  in  the  seed  itself,  but  when  that  is  used  up  the  plant  perishes.  In  the 
cultivation  of  farm  crops  it  has  been  found  that  potash  is  more  slowly  ex- 
hausted from  the  soil  than  other  forms  of  plant  food,  since  its  office  mainly 
consists  in  the  building  up  of  the  woody  structure  and  cellular  parts  of  the 
plant,  and  hence  is  found  in  the  straw,  corn  stalks  and  other  materials  that 

(70) 


Potash — 71 

usually  are  kept  on  the  farm,  and  returned  in  the  manure;  and  not  because 
it  leaches  away  from  the  soil  less  rapidly  than  phosphoric  acid.  The  great 
office  of  potash  in  the  plant  seems  to  be  the  structure  of  starch,  since  it  is 
found  that  while  all  the  conditions  needed  for  the  assimilation  of  carbon  from 
the  air  (the  process  through  which  starch  is  formed),  may  be  present,  the 
starch  is  not  formed  without  the  presence  of  potash  in  sufficient  quantity. 
Now,  as  all  woody  structure  is  formed  from  the  starch,  it  is  evident  that 
potash  is  an  important  matter  in  the  building  up  of  the  plant.  Plants  like 
potatoes  and  corn,  which  make  large  surplus  quantities  of  starch  to  store 
away  in  tubers  and  grain,  require  large  percentages  of  potash  in  their  food. 

SOILS  WHICH  NEED  POTASH  MOST. 

Light,  sandy  soils  near  the  coast  are  more  apt  to  be  deficient  in  potash 
than  the  heavy  clays,  especially  the  clays  that  are  the  result  of  the  decomposi- 
tion of  granitic  rocks,  which  naturally  contain  a  larger  percentage  of  potash. 
But  even  in  some  of  these  soils  the  application  of  potash  may  be  fomnd  profit- 
able, because  the  potash  may  be,  and  commonly  is,  in  the  form  of  an  insoluble 
silicate,  and  this  becomes  very  slowly  available  to  plants  through  the  action 
of  the  carbonic  acid  in  the  rain  water.  Black,  peaty  soils,  resulting  from  the 
decomposition  of  vegetable  matter,  are  very  commonly  deficient  in  potash, 
and  it  is  a  common  remark  on  the  South  Atlantic  coast  that  a  certain  soil  will 
grow  upland  rice,  but  will  not  make  a  crop  of  Indian  corn.  This  is  mainly 
because  of  the  deficiency  of  mineral  matters,  chiefly  of  potash.  It  is  a  com- 
mon and  almost  universal  practice  among  the  manufacturers  of  fertilizers 
to  make  the  phosphoric  acid  much  larger  in  proportion  than  the  potash,  and 
it  has  been  shown  by  experiment  that  the  average  commercial  fertilizer  has, 
as  a  rule,  too  small  a  percentage  of  potash  in  proportion  to  the  nitrogen  and 
phosphoric  acid.  The  plants,  like  peas  and  clover,  which  give  us  nitrogen 
free  of  cost,  are  great  consumers  of  phosphates  and  potash,  and  they  can  do 
far  more  of  their  important  work  if  well  supplied  with  the  mineral  elements 
of  plant  food.  The  average  complete  fertilizer  mixture  contains  not  more 
than  1  to  2  per  cent,  of  potash,  while  for  tobacco,  potatoes,  and  corn  and  some 
other  crops  the  potash  on  light  soils  should  be  as  high  as  10  per  cent,  for  the 
best  results.  Therefore,  it  is  important  for  the  progressive  farmer  to  make 
his  own  fertilizing  mixtures,  so  that  he  can  vary  the  proportions  to  suit  the 
different  crops  grown ;  and  if  he  practices  the  best  rotation,  he  will  find  little 
use  for  the  complete  fertilizers,  will  finally  buy  nothing  but  phosphoric  acid 
and  potash,  and  will  use  these  freely  for  the  purpose  of  getting  more  of  the 
nitrogen  fixed  in  his  soil. 


73 — Ceop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

what  is  the  best  form  of  potash? 

As  we  have  said,  the  potash  mined  in  Germany  exists  in  the  forms  of 
sulphates,  chlorides  and  carbonates.  There  is  little  difference  in  the  rate  of 
availability  to  the  plant  of  any  of  these  forms,  but  the  effect  of  the  particular 
form  on  the  different  crops  is  an  important  matter.  It  has  been. found  that 
while  the  muriate  (or  chloride)  of  potash  will  produce  a  heavy  crop  of  tobac- 
co, it  seriously  impairs  the  quality  of  the  leaf,  and  hence  in  a  tobacco  fertilizer 
it  is  important  to  use  the  sulphate,  which  is  free  from  chlorides.  In  some 
sections  it  has  been  found  that  the  Irish  potato  crop  is  damaged  in  quality 
by  the  use  of  muriate,  while  in  other  sections  the  muriate  is  used  exclusively 
on  this  crop.  The  nature  of  the  soil  seems  to  have  a  great  deal  to  do  with  the 
form  in  which  potash  is  of  use  to  the  Irish  potato.  In  the  great  early-potato 
growing  section  of  the  South  Atlantic  coast,  the  muriate  has  been  found  to 
give  the  finest  crop;  while  in  the  North  and  on  a  heavier  soil,  the  sulphate  is 
of  importance  in  giving  quality  to  the  product.  On  a  clay  soil  and  in  a 
Northern  climate  we  should  use  the  sulphate  for  potatoes.  Crops  that  have 
sugar  as  an  important  constituent  are  always  more  favorably  affected  by  the 
sulphate  than  the  muriate.  Sweet  potatoes,  sugar  beets,  strawberries,  toma- 
toes and  such  should  always  have  their  potash  in  the  form  of  a  sulphate  free 
from  chlorides.  Indian  corn  and  grasses,  wheat  and  oats,  are  indifferent  to 
the  form  in  which  the  potash  is  furnished. 

CRUDE  POTASH  SALTS. 

As  mined  in  Germany  there  are  two  principal  forms  of  the  salts  in  a 
crude  state.  These  are  kainit  and  sylvanite.  There  are  other  forms,  but 
these  are  about  the  only  ones  exported,  and  by  far  the  larger  part  of  the  crude 
salts  that  come  to  this  country  are  in  the  form  of  kainit.  While  the  potash 
in  kainit  is  in  the  form  of  a  sulphate,  it  is  mixed  with  such  a  large  percentage 
of  chloride  of  sodium  (common  salt)  that  its  action  is  the  same  as  the 
chloride,  or  muriate.  Containing  so  low  a  percentage  of  potash,  generally 
a  little  over  12  per  cent.,  it  is  a  costly  form  in  which  to  buy  potash  at  any  dis- 
tance from  the  port  of  entry,  since  the  freighting  of  so  large  a  proportion  of 
useless  material  rapidly  runs  up  the  cost  of  the  potash  to  the  farmer,  which  is 
the  only  thing  in  it  which  is  of  any  great  importance  to  him.  It  is  also 
dangerous  to  use  in  large  quantities  in  immediate  contact  with  seed,  or  young 
plant  roots,  because  of  the  salt  it  contains.  Some  time  ago  a  farmer  in  the 
tobacco  section  of  North  Carolina  wrote  to  me  that  he  had  bad  success  with 
the  home  mixing  of  fertilizers  from  a  formula  we  gave  him,  and  that  the 


Potash — 73 

quality  of  the  tobacco  was  very  poor.  We  asked  him  to  send  a  copy  of  the 
bill  of  materials  he  had  bought.  He  purchased  them  from  a  large  manufac- 
turer of  fertilizers,  and  it  was  evident,  as  soon  as  we  saw  the  bill,  that  he  had 
been  imposed  upon  purposely  in  order  to  discredit  the  formula.  I  prescribed 
sulphate  of  potash  in  the  mixture,  and  he  ordered  it.  On  the  bill  was 
charged  "sulphate  of  potash,"  and  then  added,  in  small  letters,  "low  grade 
kainit."  The  cause  of  the  poor  quality  of  his  tobacco  was  evident  and  we 
wrote  to  him  that  he  had  simply  been  cheated,  as  he  should  have  had  the  high 
grade  sulphate  free  from  chlorides,  and  it  was  evident  that  the  fertilizer  man 
was  after  killing  his  home  mixing. 

MANUFACTURED  POTASH   SALTS. 

These  are  products  which  have  been  treated  to  remove  the  excess  of  other 
constituents  and  to  concentrate  the  potash.  The  most  common  form  and  the 
form  most  generally  used  in  this  country  is  the  muriate  (or  chloride)  of  pot- 
ash. It  usually  contains  about  50  per  cent,  of  actual  potash.  Dealers  frequent- 
ly confuse  unlearned  buyers  by  giving  on  their  bags  the  percentage  of  muriate 
instead  of  the  percentage  of  actual  potash.  Thus  they  will  say,  "muriate  of 
potash,  80  per  cent."  and  lead  the  farmer  to  believe  that  there  is  80  per  cent, 
of  potash.  If  you  get  an  article  with  such  a  percentage  stated,  it  simply 
means  that  it  has  that  much  of  the  muriate,  and  you  can  tell  how  much  potash 
it  has  by  multiplying  the  percentage  of  muriate  by  the  fraction  0.632.  Thus 
a  bag  marked  muriate  of -potash  80  per  cent.,  would  have  50.56  per  cent,  of 
potash.  In  the  same  way  the  dealers  will  mark  the  sulphate  of  potash  (the 
high  grade)  98  per  cent,  sulphate  of  j)otash,  and  you  can  find  the  actual 
potash  by  multiplying  this  by  the  fraction  0.54,  so  that  a  bag  having  98  per 
cent,  of  sulphate  of  potash  will  contain  52.92  per  cent,  of  actual  potash.  As 
we  have  said,  the  sulphate  is  important  for  some  crops  for  which  the  muriate 
is  not  well  adapted,  but  its  cost  is  greater  than  that  of  the  muriate,  and  where 
the  muriate  is  adapted  to  the  crop  it  is  always  the  most  economical  to  use. 
The  higher  cost  of  the  sulphate  leads  manufacturers  of  fertilizers  to  use  the 
muriate  where  the  sulphate  should  be  used.  One  of  the  largest  tobacco 
growers  in  North  Carolina  told  the  writer  that  he  sent  a  formula  to  a  large 
manufacturer  in  which  he  specified  sulphate  of  potash.  They  agreed  to  make 
it  by  his  formula,  and  when  the  goods  arrived  he  sent  a  sample  to  the  State 
chemist  for  analysis,  and  this  showed  that  the  muriate  had  been  used  instead 
of  the  sulphate.  He  therefore  very  properly  refused  to  receive  the  fertilizer. 
Tobacco  growers  who  buy  ready  mixed  fertilizers  cannot  be  too  careful  as  to 
the  source  of  the  potash  in  them.     There  is  another  form  of  manufactured 


74 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

potash  called  "  double  manure  salts/'  or  the  double  sulphate  of  potash  and 
magnesia.  This  is  a  lower  grade,  and  contains  from  23  to  26  per  cent,  of 
potash.  From  the  lower  percentage  of  potash  this,  like  kainit,  is  more  costly 
so  far  as  the  actual  potash  is  concerned,  and  it  is  always  more  economical, 
especially  where  the  goods  are  to  be  transported  far  from  the  port  of  entry, 
to  buy  the  most  concentrated  article  and  thus  avoid  the  freighting  of  useless 
matter. 

CAPACITY  OF  THE  SOIL  FOR  ABSORBING  POTASH. 

In  some  instances,  near  the  coast,  it  is  found  that  kainit  is  the  cheaper 
form  in  which  to  buy  potash.  But  to  get  the  amount  of  potash  needed  by  the 
early  potato  crop,  for  instance,  would  require  an  application  that  would  be 
certain  to  be  injurious  from  the  amount  of  sodium  chloride  if  directly  applied 
to  the  crop.  Fortunately  it  has  been  found  that  while  the  soil  will  release 
the  chloride  of  sodium  and  allow  it  to  leach  away,  it  will  hold  on  to  the  potash 
that  was  associated  with  it.  Therefore,  it  has  become  the  practice  with  a 
few  growers  near  the  coast  to  apply  a  heavy  dressing  of  kainit  in  the  fall, 
to  the  land  they  intend  planting  in  potatoes  in  the  spring.  The  injurious 
chloride  is  leached  out  of  the  sandy  soil  during  the  winter,  while  the  potash 
remains.  It  also  seems  probable  that  the  chloride  in  the  leaching  may  render 
soluble  other  matters  in  the  soil  that  may  be  of  use,  and  thus  help  the  crop. 
But  this  very  fact  may  be  a  disadvantage,  since  there  may  be  formed  soluble 
chlorides  of  lime,  and  the  heavy  application  of  kainit  may  result  in  the  ex- 
haustion of  the  lime  in  the  soil.  But  where  this  practice  is  followed,  the 
abundance  of  marine  shells  at  hand  will  soon  remedy  this,  if  used  on  the  soil 
after  burning.  There  are  few  localities,  however,  where  kainit  is  the  cheapest 
form  of  potash.  The  application  of  potash  should  in  any  event,  be  immedi- 
ately worked  into  the  soil,  so  that  it  may  be  equally  diffused  in  the  soil  and 
not  fixed  merely  at  the  surface. 

DANGERS  FROM   POTASH. 

The  general  opinion  is  that  kainit  is  especially  dangerous  in  contact  with 
seeds  or  young  plant  roots,  by  reason  of  the  large  percentage  of  salt  which  it 
contains.  This  is  true,  but  in  our  own  experiments  we  have  found  that  the 
muriate  is  far  more  damaging  to  germination  of  seeds  with  which  it  comes  in 
contact,  than  kainit  is.  Carefully  conducted  experiments  have  shown  that 
even  when  covered  with  an  inch  of  soil,  seeds  placed  above  the  muriate  were 
seriously  damaged.  In  fact,  no  fertilizer  containing  a  large  percentage  of 
potash  should  be  used  in  direct  contact  with  the  seed,  and  it  is  far  better  that 


Potash — 75 

both  the  potash  and  the  phosphates  should  be  applied  broadcast,  and  some  time 
in  advance  of  the  planting  of  the  crops,  so  that  they  may  become  fixed  and  as- 
similated in  the  soil  and  their  caustic  effects  prevented.  Growers  of  frame 
lettuce  in  Eastern  North  Carolina  know  that  in  their  sandy  soil  the  crop  needs 
a  liberal  supply  of  potash,  and  they  usually  give  it  liberally.  A  lettuce 
grower  some  time  since  sent  me  in  the  early  fall  some  of  his  plants,  which  had 
the  edges  of  the  leaves  turning  red  and  evidently  dying.  He  wanted  to  know 
the  reason.  Examination  showed  no  insect  or  fungus  attack,  but  the  roots 
were  evidently  injured.  The  plants  were  set  in  a  frame  here  and  at  once  grew 
off  and  made  fine  heads.  I  found  that  the  grower  had  applied  a  heavy  dress- 
ing of  muriate  of  potash  in  the  fertilizer  used  on  the  frames,  and  this  was 
doubtless  the  cause ;  for  on  taking  up  all  the  plants  and  re-setting  the  frames, 
after  several  good  rains,  he  had  no  further  trouble.  Wheat  growers  commonly 
drill  their  seed  with  the  fertilizer,  and  this  may  do  where  a  very  small  per- 
centage of  potash  is  used,  and  the  quantity  is  far  less  than  that  used  by  the 
truck  growers. 

POTASH  IN  WASTE  PRODUCTS. 

Farmers  in  the  tobacco  manufacturing  sections,  and  tobacco  growers, 
should  understand  the  value  of  tobacco  waste.  The  stems  from  which  the 
tobacco  leaves  are  stripped  on  the  plantations  are  a  valuable  source,  not  only 
of  potash,  but  of  phosphoric  acid  and  nitrogen  as  well.^  'The  stems  from  the 
stemming  houses  are  still  more  valuable,  and  the  dust  from  the  factories 
where  smoking  tobacco  is  made  is  in  a  form  that  is  very  much  more  readily 
taken  by  plants  than  the  stems.  The  field  stalks  of  tobacco  contain  3.71  per 
cent,  nitrogen,  5.02  per  cent,  of  potash  and  0.65  per  cent,  of  phosphoric  acid. 
The  stems  from  the  stemmeries  contain  2.35  per  cent,  of  nitrogen,  8.20  per 
cent,  of  potash  and  0.70  per  cent,  of  phosphoric  acid.  So  that  with  the  ex- 
ception of  phosphoric  acid  they  form  a  complete  fertilizer  of  high  grade. 

But  of  course  they  cannot  be  compared  with  a  soluble  fertilizer  of  similar 
analysis,  since  before  the  nitrogen  and  other  things  can  become  available  to 
plants  the  material  must  be  completely  decayed  in  the  soil.  Hence  the  finely 
divided  dust  from  the  smoking  tobacco  factories  will  probably  be  the  more 
quickly  available.  Where  these  materials  can  be  bought  cheaply,  the  farmer 
may  be  able  to  get  potash  in  a  cheaper  form  than  any  other.  We  have  at 
hand  no  analysis  of  the  tobacco  dust,  and  it  doubtless  varies  a  great  deal  owing 
to  the  amount  of  sand  and  other  impurities  in  it.  The  percentage  of  potash 
may  run  as  high  as  ten  per  cent.,  and  the  nitrogen  as  high  as  in  most  of  the 
fertilizer  mixtures.     Part  of  the  nitrogen  in  tobacco  exists  as  a  nitrate  and  is 


76 — Ceop  Growing  and  Ceop  Feeding 

immediately  available  to  plants.  The  remainder  is  organic  nitrogen,  which 
must  go  through  the  process  of  nitrification  in  the  soil  to  become  available 
to  plants.  Where  the  farmer  is  so  situated  as  to  be  able  to  get  these  tobacco 
wastes,  he  should  by  all  means  avail  himself  of  them,  since  they  are  rich  in 
plant  food  and  contain  no  deleterious  matters.  We  have  seen  tobacco  dust 
spread  an  inch  thick  on  a  lawn  with  the  finest  results.  A  ton  of  tobacco 
stems  of  good  quality  contains  nitrogen  equivalent  to  500  pounds  of  nitrate 
of  soda,  and  potash  equal  to  200  pounds  of  high  grade  sulphate  of  potash. 
Since  these  tobacco  wastes  can  often  be  bought  near  the  factories  for  $3  to  $5 
per  ton  it  is  evident  that  they  are  a  very  cheap  source  of  nitrogen  and  potash. 

COTTON  SEED  HULL  ASHES. 

The  oil  mills  engaged  in  the  manufacture  of  cotton  seed  oil  in  the 
Southern  States  use  the  hulls  from  the  seeds  largely  as  a  fuel  in  their  fur- 
naces. The  ashes  resulting  from  this  burning  contain  a  large  percentage  of 
potash,  and  a  fair  percentage  of  phosphoric  acid,  with  very  little  lime. 
Ordinary  wood  ashes  contain  so  large  a  percentage  of  lime  that  they  are  not 
available  for  mixing  in  fertilizers,  since  the  lime  will  have  a  tendency  to 
drive  off  ammonia  and  revert  the  phosphoric  acid.  While  cotton  seed  hull 
ashes  are  rich  in  potash,  they  vary  greatly  in  the  actual  percentage  of  potash 
and  their  value  cannot  be  predicted  without  an  actual  analysis  of  the  sample. 
They  contain  from  20  to  24  per  cent,  of  potash,  nearly  9  per  cent,  of  phos- 
phoric acid,  9  per  cent,  of  lime  and  10  per  cent,  of  magnesia.  These  ashes  are 
an  excellent  source  of  potash  and  phosphoric  acid,  and  the  fact  that  they  are 
not  so  rich  in  lime  as  ashes  from  the  hard-woods  is  an  advantage,  and  allows 
them  to  be  used  in  compounding  a  fertilizer  mixture  where  wood  ashes  would 
be  inadmissable. 

GREEN   SAND   MARL. 

The  green  sand  marls  of  New  Jersey  and  Southeast  Virginia  contain  a 
large  percentage  of  potash,  as  well  as  a  smaller  percentage  of  phosphoric  acid. 
But  all  these  are  in  a  form  very  slowly  available.  Their  slow  availability  ren- 
ders the  marl  applications  lasting  in  effect,  and  as  the  green  sand  marl  can  be 
applied  in  very  large  quantities  without  injurious  effects,  its  value  as  a  me- 
chanical amendment  to  the  soil  is  very  considerable.  Marl  has  had  a  great  ef- 
fect on  the  lands  of  a  section  of  New  Jersey,  and  also  in  Southeast  Virginia. 
A  farm  in  Virginia  which  had  an  application  of  400  bushels  per  acre  40  years 
ago  was  made  permanently  productive,  and  since  then  a  further  application 
of  marl  has  not  seemed  to  have  any  effect. 


CHAPTER  IX. 
LIME  AND  LIMING  LAND. 

The  substances  of  which  we  have  been  treating  in  the  past  three  chapters, 
nitrogen,  phosphoric  acid  and  potash,  are  direct  fertilizers,  or  plant  foods. 
We  come  now  to  the  consideration  of  the  forms  which  are  most  useful  as  re- 
agents, or,  as  we  may  say,  stimulants  to  the  productive  capacity  of  the  soil. 
While  it  is  true  that  calcium  of  which  lime  is  the  oxide  when  freshly  made, 
is  one  of  the  elements  essential  to  plant  growth,  it  is  usually  found  in  all 
cultivated  soils  in  almost  inexhaustible  quantities  for  all  the  purposes  of 
direct  plant  feeding.  Yet  an  application  of  freshly  slaked  quick  lime  (or 
hydrate  of  calcium),  will  often  have  a  marked  effect  on  the  productiveness 
of  the  soil,  through  its  action  in  releasing  other  forms  of  plant  food,  particu- 
larly potash,  from  the  insoluble  silicates  in  which  it  occurs  in  the  soil. 

Lime  is  also  important  in  a  soil  abounding  in  organic  matter,  as  it  cor- 
rects the  acidity  of  such  soils,  and  enables  the  nitrifying  microbes  to  thrive 
and  do  their  work  in  bringing  the  nitrogen  of  the  organic  matter  into  the 
available  form  of  a  nitrate.  Hence  the  old  proverb  that  "Lime  enriches  the 
father  and  impoverishes  the  son,"  for  it  enables  us  to  get  at  the  plant  food  in 
the  soil,  and  if  used  with  the  notion  that  it  is  simply  a  manure  we  may  soon 
find  that  its  use  has  tended  to  exhaustion.  Judiciously  used,  however,  there 
is  nothing  that  is  a  greater  aid  in  the  development  of  the  farm.  Lime  also 
has  an  important  mechanical  effect  on  soils.  It  renders  a  heavy  clay  soil 
more  friable  by  gathering  it  into  small  lumps,  or  flocculating  it,  as  it  is 
called.  On  a  sandy  soil  it  sinks  and  forms  a  compact  layer  below  the  plow, 
and  thus  renders  the  soil  less  leachy.  But  in  many  sections  where  there  is  a 
fertile  soil  well  supplied  with  humus,  the  application  of  lime  has  at  first  pro- 
duced such  marked  results  that  the  farmers  have  jumped  to  the  conclusion 
that  lime  is  all  they  need  to  keep  up  the  productiveness  of  their  lands.  After 
a  while  they  find  that  the  lime  has  less  and  less  effect,  and  they  are  compelled 
to  resort  to  commercial  fertilizers  for  the  production  of  crops.     We  recently 

(77) 


78 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding. 

had  a  letter  from  an  old  and  observant  farmer  in  one  of  th  most  prosperous 
agricultural  sections  of  the  State  of  Maryland,  who  deplored  the  fact  that  his 
neighbors  had  used  lime  to  such  an  extent  that  their  lands  were  less  pro- 
ductive than  formerly.  He  said  that  for  over  thirty  years  he  had  used  noth- 
ing on  his  farm  but  acid  phosphate  and  clover,  with  an  occasional  dressing 
of  a  moderate  amount  of  lime  to  preserve  the  sweetness  of  the  soil  and  to 
enable  it  to  grow  large  crops  of  clover.  The  result  was  that  he  made  40 
bushels  of  wheat  per  acre  where  his  neighbors  grew  less  than  formerly.  Now, 
in  his  application  of  acid  phosphate  every  third  year  he  applied  in  it  40  per 
cent,  of  the  sulphate  of  lime,  and  adding  a  small  dressing  of  freshly  slaked 
lime  every  sixth  year,  he  kept  releasing  the  potash  in  his  soil,  and  hence 
needed  only  the  phosphoric  acid  in  his  fertilizer.  His  red  clay  soil  contains 
an  almost  inexhaustible  deposit  of  potash  as  an  insoluble  silicate,  and  the  lime 
gradually  gives  him  the  use  of  some  of  this.  How  long  he  can  keep  up 
the  productiveness  of  his  land  without  adding  potash  will,  of  course, 
depend  on  the  amount  his  soil  contains.  The  wise  farmer  will,  however, 
watch  closely  and  stand  ready  to  supply  the  deficiency  as  it  occurs,  but  will 
not  waste  money  in  the  purchase  of  what  he  does  not  at  present  need. 

Limestone,  from  which  lime  is  made,  is  an  impure  carbonate  of  lime,  in 
many  instances  being  mixed  with  a  large  percentage  of  magnesia,  making 
what  is  called  dolomite,  or  magnesian,  limestone.  As  the  magnesia  is  a  use- 
ful plant  food  this  is  not  a  bad  mixture  for  most  soils.  Where  pure  lime  is 
wanted  the  purer  the  stone,  even  till  it  becomes  marble,  the  better.  Oyster 
shells  are  used  as  a  source  of  lime  in  the  coast  region,  and  they  are  a  pure  car- 
bonate of  lime,  and  when  free  from  earthy  impurities,  make  a  very  pure 
lime.  In  some  parts  of  the  South  lime  is  burned  from  the  fossil  shell  rock 
and  contains  a  small  percentage  of  phosphoric  acid.  One  of  the  greatest  of 
the  values  of  lime  to  the  farmer  is  in  enabling  his  soil  to  grow  clover.  It  is 
found  that  the  constant  growing  of  clover  and  the  accumulation  of  organic 
matter  in  the  soil  tends  to  create  an  acid  condition.  Under  this  condition, 
the  microbes  that  enable  the  clover  plant  to  collect  nitrogen  do  not  thrive, 
and  the  soil  microbes  that  carry  on  the  work  of  transforming  the  organic 
nitrogen  into  nitrate  will  not  exist.  The  farmer  finds  that  he  can  no  longer 
grow  clover  with  any  success,  for  the  land  is  "clover  sick."  This  is  generally 
the  result  of  an  acid  condition  of  the  soil.  Lime  will  correct  this  condition  and 
will  usually  cause  the  clover  to  grow  luxuriantly.  Most  of  the  legumes  are 
lime-loving  plants.  The  great  success  of  alfalfa  in  the  arid  regions  of  the  West 
is  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  the  lime  has  not  been  washed  out  of  the  soil.  In 
the  Eastern  States  no  great  success  with  alfalfa  has  ever  been  had  except  from 
liming  it,     We  visited  a  year  or  so  ago  the  grass  experiment  farm  of  Peter 


Lime  and  Liming  Land — 79 

Henderson  &  Co.,  at  Hackensack,  N.  J.  We  were  shown  there  a  luxuriant 
plat  of  alfalfa,  and  were  told  that  the  year  before  it  had  been  very  feeble, 
but  in  hauling  lime  to  another  part  of  the  farm  a  little  shook  from  the  wagon 
on  the  corner  of  the  alfalfa  patch.  At  once  that  part  assumed  a  stronger 
growth,  and  noting  this,  they  applied  a  dressing  of  lime  to  the  whole  plat 
with  the  finest  results.  Shortly  after  this  I  visited  the  farm  of  a  wealthy 
gentleman  in  North  Carolina,  who  is  interested  in  the  dairy,  and  was  trying 
to  grow  alfalfa.  We  advised  him  to  give  it  a  coat  of  lime,  which  was  done. 
We  passed  the  field  but  a  few  days  ago  and  noted  from  the  train  that  it  was 
the  most  luxuriant  growth  of  alfalfa  we  have  ever  seen  in  the  East.  The 
lime  is  not  only  to  some  extent  direct  food  for  the  alfalfa,  but  it  brings  about 
changes  in  other  matters  that  favor  its  growth.  One  of  these  changes  is  one 
of  the  most  recent  discoveries  in  science.  We  have  seen  that  all  green  plants 
get  their  carbon  from  the  air  through  the  assimilative  action  of  their  green 
matter.  Fungus  plants  have  no  green  matter  and  hence,  as  a  rule,  are  de- 
pendent on  what  green  leaved  plants  have  assimilated.  But  these  microscopic 
plants  in  the  soil,  which  carry  on  the  work  of  changing  the  organic  nitrogen 
into  nitrates,  though  they  are  members  of  the  great  fungus  class,  have  a  power 
that  no  green  plant  is  known  to  possess.  They  can  get  the  carbon  for  their 
growth  from  mineral  combinations  like  the  carbonate  of  lime.  Here,  then, 
is  another  reason  why  the  application  of  lime  to  a  soil  abounding  in  organic 
matter  favors  the  nitrification,  or  formation  of  nitrates,  for  the  use  of  green 
plants  which  must  get  their  nitrogen  from  the  soil. 

Lime,  to  have  its  best  effect,  should  be  well  burned,  and  slaked  with 
water  to  a  powder  before  applying  it  to  the  soil.  If  allowed  to  lie  and  get 
air  slaked  it  is  far  less  effective,  since  it  gets,  through  the  action  of  the  car- 
bonic acid  in  the  air,  into  an  insoluble  carbonate,  or  returns  almost  to  the  con- 
dition in  which  pulverized  limestone  would  have  been.  Stone  lime  slaked 
with  water  till  it  falls,  should  make  three  bushels  of  slaked  lime  for  every 
bushel  of  fresh  lumps.  Oyster  shell  lime  will  slake  two  bushels  for  one. 
There  has  of  late  been  quite  a  change  in  the  ideas  of  thinkers  in  regard  to  the 
quantity  of  lime  that  should  be  used.  Formerly  it  was  the  practice  to  apply 
lime  in  large  quantities  and  at  long  intervals.  In  recent  years  it  has  been 
shown  experimentally  that  a  small  application,  frequently  repeated,  is  far 
better  than  the  heavy  application,  so  that  now  it  is  seldom  that  more  than 
20  bushels  per  acre  are  used  by  the  best  farmers,  and  some  even  contend  for  a 
smaller  application  than  this.  With  a  short  rotation  of  three  or  four  years, 
in  which  there  are  frequent  crops  of  legumes  grown,  the  repeated  application 
of  small  doses  of  lime  every  four  or  five  years  has  been  found  to  produce  bet- 
ter results  than  twice  the  amount  at  a  longer  interval. 


80 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

Experiments  that  have  been  long  and  carefully  conducted  by  the  Ehode 
Island  Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  have  shown  that  the  sweetening  of 
an  acid  soil  by  the  application  of  lime  is  not  always  an  advantage,  since  there 
are  some  plants  that  seem  to  prefer  the  acid  soil,  or  rather  some  that  are  more 
exempt  from  disease  in  such  a  soil.  On  the  Irish  potato  crop,  for  instance, 
it  was  found  that  liming  brought  about  conditions  that  were  favorable  to 
the  fungus  that  causes  scab  in  the  potato,  and  while  the  resulting  crop  may  be 
larger  the  market  value  was  reduced  by  reason  of  the  scab.  Acidity  in  the 
soil  is  detrimental,  it  appears,  to  the  lower  forms  of  plant  life  rather  than  to 
green  plants.  Many  people  have  jumped  to  the  conclusion  that  their  land 
has  become  infested  with  sheep  sorrel  because  of  its  acidity.  The  fact  is  that 
while  this  is  usually  the  case  it  by  no  means  follows  that  the  sheep  sorrel  gets 
its  acid  from  the  soil.  The  sheep  sorrel  is  one  of  the  plants  that  can  abide 
the  presence  of  free  oxalic  acid,  while  this  acid  is  formed  in  other  plants,  the 
plant  at  once  makes  a  combination  of  it  with  lime  or  potash  and  locates  it 
in  crystals  insoluble  in  the  sap  at  ordinary  temperatures,  and  thus  renders 
it  harmless.  The  oxalic  acid  in  the  sheep  sorrel,  like  other  vegetable  acids, 
is  the  result  of  the  assimilation  of  carbon  from  the  air,  and  it  does  not  come 
from  the  soil.  But  sheep  sorrel  will  grow  in  a  soil  too  acid  to  allow  the  suc- 
cess of  clover,  and  hence  it  is  the  common  complaint  that  we  cannot  get  clover 
on  account  of  the  sheep  sorrel.  An  application  of  lime  will  bring  about  con- 
ditions favorable  to  the  clover  and  enable  it  to  smother  out  the  sheep  sorrel. 
Not  that  the  liming  kills  the  sheep  sorrel,  but  that  it  enables  the  clover  to 
grow  and  overcome  it.  Anyone  can  readily  test  the  condition  of  his  soil  by 
getting  a  piece  of  blue  litmus  paper  from  a  drug  store,  and  burying  it  over 
night  in  the  damp  soil.  If,  on  taking  it  up,  it  is  found  to  have  turned  to  a 
pink  color  it  is  evidence  that  the  soil  is  in  an  acid  condition,  and  as  our  most 
valuable  crops  j;hrive  best  in  a  soil  of  a  feebly  alkaline  nature,  an  application 
of  lime  to  such  soils  will  usually  be  beneficial.  While  most  legumes,  and 
especially  red  clover,  are  greatly  benefited  by  an  application  of  freshly  water 
slaked  lime,  there  is  one  important  legume  which  is  not  thus  helped.  The 
cow  pea,  the  greatest  legume  for  the  Southern  farmer,  is  positively  damaged 
by  a  dressing  of  lime.  Hence  one  reason  why  the  cow  pea  will  thrive  on  a 
soil  too  acid  to  permit  the  growth  of  clover.  It  seems  probable,  too,  that  the 
microbes  that  exist  on  the  roots  of  the  pea,  and  enable  it  to  get  the  free  nitro- 
gen from  the  air,  are  better  able  to  exist  in  an  acid  soil  than  those  of  the  clo- 
ver ;  for  it  is  well  known  now  that  each  legume  has  its  own  particular  microbe, 
and  that  some  of  them  may  be  inimical  to  those  of  other  legumes,  and  it  is 
rare  to  find  one  species  of  legume  doing  its  best  immediately  after  the  removal 
of  another  of  the  same  order  from  the  land.     This  is  only  another  reason  for 


Lime  and  Liming  Land — 81 

a  still  further  development  of  rotations  of  crops.  Lime  will  never  make  poor 
land  rich  if  regarded  simply  as  a  manure,  but,  used  aright,  there  is  no  means 
available  to  the  farmer  that  will  more  efficiently  aid  in  the  building  up  of 
the  productivity  of  his  land. 

SULPHATE  OF   LIME,  OR  PLASTER. 

The  sulphate  of  lime  is  a  natural  deposit  found  in  certain  sections,  and 
mined  under  the  name  of  gypsum  or  plaster.  Pure  gypsum  contains  33.5 
per  cent,  of  lime,  46.5  per  cent,  of  sulphuric  acid,  and  21  per  cent,  of  water. 
It  is  frequently  burned  to  form  what  is  called  plaster  of  Paris,  which,  when 
mixed  in  water,  rapidly  hardens  and  is  used  for  varioiis  purposes  in  the  arts. 
The  pulverized  rock,  known  as  plaster,  has  been  largely  used  as  a  soil  applica- 
tion. Like  lime,  the  plaster  has  the  power  to  release  insoluble  potash  in  the 
soil,  and  it  sometimes  has  a  marked  effect  on  soils  containing  a  large  percent- 
age of  potash.  As  in  the  case  of  lime,  farmers  seeing  the  effect  that  an  appli- 
cation of  plaster  has  on  their  soil,  have  at  times  jumped  to  the  conclusion 
that  plaster  was  all  they  needed  to  make  their  soil  rich.  But,  as  in  the  case 
of  lime,  they  have  soon  found  that  the  continued  application  soon  fails  to 
produce  the  effect  that  it  once  did,  and  that  its  continued  use  has  so  impover- 
ished their  soil  that  they  have  been  compelled  to  resort  to  the  commercial 
fertilizers  to  restore  the  mineral  constituents  they  have  removed  by  their 
short-sighted  policy. 

While  on  some  soils  plaster  has  had  this  marked  effect,  there  are  other 
soils  on  which  the  application  of  plaster  has  never  had  any  marked  effect. 
Sandy  soils  near  the  coast,  which  are  deficient  in  potash,  seldom  respond 
favorably  to  the  application  of  plaster.  In  an  experiment  made  by  the  writer 
a  number  of  years  ago,  two  fields  adjoining  in  clover  of  the  second  spring 
from  sowing,  were  dressed  with  lime  and  plaster  of  the  same  money  value. 
Both  made  a  handsome  growth,  but  the  effect  of  the  freshly  slaked  lime  was 
decidedly  more  marked  than  that  of  the  plaster,  and  the  subsequent  cropping 
of  the  land  showed  that  the  limed  field  had  collected  far  more  nitrogen  than 
the  one  treated  with  plaster. 

A  great  deal  has  been  said  and  written  in  regard  to  the  use  of  plaster  in 
arresting  the  escape  of  ammonia  from  manure,  and  some  seem  to  suppose  that 
dry  plaster  scattered  about  a  stable  will  absorb  ammonia  and  prevent  its 
loss.  The  fact  is  that  plaster  has  little  or  no  effect  in  preventing  loss  of  am- 
monia unless  it  is  thoroughly  mixed  in  the  manure  and  moistened,  for  no 
chemical  recombination  can  take  place  in  the  absence  of  moisture.  Plaster, 
being  the  sulphate  of  lime,  may,  when  well  mixed  with  manure  and  moist- 


82 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

ened,  change  the  volatile  carbonate  of  ammonia  to  the  less  volatile  sulphate 
and  thus  retain  it  in  the  manure.  A  more  efficient  agent  for  this  purpose, 
that  can  be  mixed  with  the  manure,  but  should  not  be  used  under  the  animals, 
is  kainit,  or  the  low  grade  crude  sulphate  of  potash.  The  large  amount  of 
salt  it  contains  helps  to  keep  the  manure  moist,  and  it  has  the  same  effect  of 
replacing  the  carbonate  of  ammonia  with  the  sulphate  and  at  the  same  time 
adding  potash,  which  is  usually  deficient  in  the  manure  in  proportion  to  its  ni- 
trogenous content.  Years  ago  in  the  southeastern  part  of  Virginia,  where 
there  are  extensive  deposits  of  plaster  rock  and  also  extensive  salt  deposits, 
the  salt  manufacturers  got  up  what  was  known  as  the  Holston  mixture,  made 
of  plaster,  ashes  and  salt,  and  this  mixture  for  a  long  time  had  a  great  reputa- 
tion in  Virginia.  Its  beneficial  effects  on  crops  were  largely  due  to  the  ashes, 
and,  on  some  soils,  to  the  plaster,  while  the  salt,  though  not  a  fertilizer  at  all, 
may  have  had  some  effect  in  the  solution  of  matters  of  value  in  the  soil.  As  a 
rule,  where  a  farm  is  cultivated  in  a  good  rotation  and  lime  is  used  in  connec- 
tion with  the  growing  of  clover  there  will  be  little  or  no  use  for  the  plaster, 
unless  it  may  be  in  a  section  where  plaster  is  a  remarkably  cheap  article,  and 
even  then  it  could  hardly  take  the  place  of  lime. 

GAS  HOUSE  LIME. 

Near  the  city  gas  houses  this  lime  is  commonly  offered  so  cheaply  that 
farmers  are  tempted  to  use  it  on  their  land.  We  have  seen  some  disastrous 
results  from  the  use  of  this  lime  as  it  is  freshly  brought  from  the  gas  works. 
It  contains,  while  fresh,  sulphides  that  are  positively  poisonous  to  plant  life, 
and  while  it  may  be  used  with  some  good  effect  after  a  long  exposure  to  the 
air,  even  the  small  percentage  of  nitrogen  it  contains  in  the  form  of  sulphate 
of  ammonia  may  be  positively  harmful,  so  that  while  it  contains  a  good  per- 
centage of  lime,  we  cannot  advise  its  use.  Far  better  pay  a  reasonable  price 
for  fresh  quick  lime  than  have  the  gas  house  lime  for  the  hauling. 

SULPHATE  OF  LIME  AS  A  WASTE  PRODUCT. 

Sometimes  the  manufacturers  of  fertilizers,  in  order  to  make  a  more  con- 
centrated article  of  superphosphate,  remove  a  portion  of  the  sulphate  of  lime, 
which  contains  a  small  percentage  of  phosphoric  acid.  This  has  been  sold 
at  about  the  price  of  common  plaster,  and  when  in  a  good  mechanical  condi- 
tion it  is  a  good  substitute  for  plaster.  One  manufacturer  offers  this  under 
the  name  of  "stable  dust,"  and  recommends  it  for  sprinkling  manure  to  pre- 
vent the  formation  of  the  volatile  carbonate  of  ammonia  and  a  consequent 
loss  of  nitrogen.     Of  its  proper  use  in  this  we  have  already  written. 


Limb  and  Liming  Land — 83 

ageicultural  salt 

The  packing  houses  have  large  quantities  of  refuse  salt  which  they  are 
glad  to  get  rid  of  at  a  low  price,  and  there  is  a  persistent  effort  to  persuade 
the  farmers  that  it  is  valuable  as  a  manure.  The  editors  of  agricultural 
papers  are  continually  applied  to  by  thei:i>  readers  for  information  in  regard 
to  the  value  of  salt  as  a  manure,  and  there  are  some  writers  who  are  continu- 
ally claiming  that  soda,  of  which  salt  is  largely  composed,  can  be  profitably 
used  as  a  substitute  for  potash.  Though  experiments  have  continually  shown 
that  this  is  not  the  case,  and  that  soda  cannot  take  the  place  of  potash,  the 
subject  seems  to  be  a  perennial  one  for  some.  Salt,  or  chloride  of  sodium, 
furnishes  in  itself  no  element  of  plant  food  essential  to  vegetation,  and  what- 
ever good  effect  may  result  from  its  use  is  due  to  its  action  in  aiding  the  de- 
composition of  organic  matter  in  the  soil,  "increasing  the  absorbing  power  of 
soils,  and,  by  its  reaction  with  lime,  acting  as  a  solvent  for  phosphate.''  Prof. 
Voorhees,  in  his  work  on  fertilizers,  well  says,  "There  would  seem  to  be  no 
good  reason  for  paying  from  $4  to  $6  per  ton  for  this  substance,  when  practi- 
cally the  same  effect  can  be  obtained  from  the  salt  contained  in  the  crude 
potash  salt,  kainit,  one-third  of  the  weight  of  which  is  common  salt.  This, 
too,  may  be  had  free  of  charge,  or  for  the  handling,  as  the  market  price  of 
the  kainit  is  based  upon  its  content  of  potash." 

SHELL  MARLS. 

The  shell  marls  of  the  Atlantic  coast  are  almost  entirely  carbonate  of 
lime,  and  can  be  used  for  about  the  same  purpose  as  the  air  slaked  lime. 
Properly  used  in  connection  with  the  culture  of  legumes,  these  marls  have 
a  value,  but  it  must  not  be  assumed  that,  like  the  green  sand  marl,  they  will 
furnish  other  forms  of  plant  food,  and,  when  applied  heavily  to  soils  deficient 
in  humus,  their  effect  may  be  disastrous  to  the  fertility  of  the  land  for  a  long 
time. 

TAN  BARK  ASHES. 

These  are  another  waste  product  about  which  inquiries  are  continually 
being  made.  Farmers,  knowing  the  value  of  hard-wood  ashes,  are  apt  to  con- 
clude that  the  ashes  from  the  spent  oak  bark  will  have  considerable  value. 
While  good  hard-wood  ashes  may  contain  from  5  to  7  per  cent,  of  potash,  the 
tan  bark  ashes  seldom  have  over  2  per  cent,  of  potash,  associated  with  a  small 
percentage  of  phosphoric  acid  and  about  30  per  cent,  of  lime.     They  are  not 


84 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

valuable  enough  to  pay  for  hauling  any  great  distance  if  they  have  to  be  paid 
for.  Where  they  can  be  had  for  the  hauling  a  short  distance  it  may  pay  the 
local  farmers  to  use  them. 

rfWAMP  MUCK,  OR  PEAT. 

Many  years  ago  an  enthusiastic  chemist  wrote  a  book  entitled  the  "Muck 
Manual/'  and  talked  learnedly  about  gein  and  other  things,  and  showed  that 
muck  mixed  with  spent  ashes  was  identical  in  composition  with  cow  dung. 
But  the  muck  swamps  of  the  country  have  not  yet  been  transformed  into  cow 
dung,  and  there  is  far  less  talk  about  the  virtures  of  muck  than  there  was  in 
the  writer's  boyhood.  The  introduction  of  commercial  fertilizers  has  so  re- 
duced the  labor  of  furnishing  plant  food  to  the  soil  that  few  are  willing  now 
to  undertake  the  great  labor  of  digging  and  handling  peat.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  a  good  quality  of  swamp  muck,  when  well  dried,  is  a  good  ab- 
sorbent of  liquids  in  stables  and  barnyards,  and  that  it  will  put  a  good  deal  of 
humus  in  the  soil;  and  that  finally  there  may  be  some  release  of  nitrogen 
from  its  organic  matter.  But  raw  muck  spread  on  the  land  can  have  very 
little  effect  in  increasing  its  productiveness,  and  may  do  positive  harm.  If 
the  muck  is  to  be  applied  directly  to  the  land  the  best  way  would  probably  be 
to  pile  it  in  the  fall  in  flat  heaps,  and  cover  every  six-inch  layer  with  freshly 
flaked  lime.  After  lying  in  this  way  during  the  Winter,  it  will  make  a  much 
better  application  for  the  soil.  But,  as  Prof.  Voorhees  well  says,  if  the 
swamp  can  be  drained,  it  is  far  better  to  leave  the  muck  there  and  drain  the 
land  for  cultivation. 


CHAPTER  X. 
MIXING  FERTILIZERS  ON  THE  FARM. 

A  great  deal  has  been  said  and  written  of  late  years  in  regard  to  the 
mixing  of  fertilizers  on  the  farm.  The  manurial  requirements  of  the  dif- 
ferent crops  vary  to  such  an  extent  that  the  same  fertilizer  is  not  always  best 
for  all,  and  it  is  of  great  advantage  to  vary  the  proportions  of  the  various 
constituents  to  suit  the  crop  grown.  It  is  difficult  and  expensive  to  do  this 
by  buying  the  ready  mixed  articles.  Then,  too,  it  has  been  shown  that  for  the 
soil  of  many  sections  of  the  country,  particularly  in  New  England,  the  ready 
made  fertilizers  all  have  too  large  a  proportion  of  phosphates  to  the  potash 
and  nitrogen  used. 

In  the  reports  of  analyses  of  commercial  fertilizers  by  the  Agricultural 
Experiment  Stations  it  is  a  common  practice  to  give  the  commercial  value 
of  each.  This  value  means  that  the  plant-food  in  the  mixture  can  be  bought 
at  retail  on  the  market  for  the  price  named.  But  the  commercial  value  of  a 
fertilizer  and  its  agricultural  value  are  two  entirely  different  things.  It 
must  not  be  assumed  that  because  a  fertilizer  is  rated  high  in  commercial 
value  it  is  also  the  best  for  all  soils  and  crops.  The  agricultural  value 
depends  on  the  needs  of  the  land  on  which  it  is  to  be  used,  and  in  buying  by 
the  commercial  valuation  the  farmer  may  be  buying  matter  which  his  soil 
does  not  need,  and  hence  will  be  wasting  money  in  the  purchase. 

If  there  is  no  need  for  the  purchase  of  nitrogen,  for  instance,  the  farmer 
can  save  at  least  half  the  cost  of  the  fertilizer  by  buying  an  incomplete  fer- 
tilizer, containing  potash  and  phosphoric  acid  only. 

The  various  Experiment  Stations  have  given  a  great  deal  of  attention  to 
the  investigation  of  fertilizers,  and  their  unanimous  conclusion  is  that  the 
farmers  can  buy  the  materials  and  mix  their  own  fertilizers  more  cheaply  than 
they  can  buy  the  factory  mixed,  and  at  the  same  time  get  just  as  good  results 
from  their  use  on  crops. 

In  regard  to  the  valuation  and  selling  price  of  commercial  fertilizers, 
the  Vernlont  Station  (Bulletin  No.  71)  says,  from  an  analysis  of  137  brands 
made  by  eighteen  different  companies,  "two-fifths  of  the  brands  carried  no 

(86) 


86 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

water-soluble  nitrogen.  Laboratory  methods  seem  to  indicate  that  somewhat 
inferior  forms  of  nitrogen  were  used  in  certain  cases,  notably  in  some  low 
grade  goods,  and  by  some  companies.  The  phosphoric  acid  was,  in  some 
cases,  quite  largely  in  the  insoluble  or  reverted  forms,  indicating  apparently 
either  imperfect  manufacture,  old  goods,  or  more  or  less  use  of  (agricultur- 
ally) inferior  forms  of  this  article.  Sulphate  of  potash  is  claimed  to  be 
present  in  nine-tenths  of  the  brands,  but  was  actually  found  in  less  than 
one-eighth  of  the  entire  number. 

The  average  selling  price  approximated  $28.75,  and  the  average  valua- 
tion $17.39.  Two  dollars  in  every  five  paid  for  fertilizers  met  costs  of  man- 
ufacture and  sale.  The  same  amount  of  plant-food  which  cost  a  dollar  might 
have  been  bought  at  retail  for  cash  at  the  seaboard  for  56  cents  in  average 
low  priced  goods,  for  61  cts.  in  average  medium  grade  brands,  and  for  66  cts. 
in  average  high  priced  goods.  In  one-third  of  the  entire  number  of  brands  a 
dollar  was  charged  for  amounts  of  plant-food  which  might  have  been  bought, 
in  the  manner  above  stated,  for  55  cents  or  less.  Cheap  fertilizers  are  usually 
the  most  expensive  to  buy.  Buying  mixed  goods  on  time  is  a  far  more 
costly  method  of  getting  plant-food  than  is  home  mixing  or  buying  on 
special  order." 

Low  grade  fertilizers,  or  complete  fertilizers  sold  at  low  price,  are  always 
the  most  costly  to  the  farmer.  Several  years  ago  a  dealer  in  one  of  our  cities, 
who  was  having  fertilizers  made  for  his  trade  by  a  chemical  firm,  sent  me  a 
package  of  the  burnt  sand  and  iron  oxide  left  in  the  manufacture  of  sulphuric 
acid  from  iron  pyrites,  and  wished  to  know  if  it  had  any  fertilizing  value, 
as  he  found  that  the  manufacturer  was  using  500  pounds  of  it  in  a  ton  of  low 
grade  goods  made  for  his  sales.  I,  of  course,  told  him  that  it  was  perfectly 
valueless.  The  farmer  who  bought  these  goods  was  attracted  by  their  appar- 
ent low  price,  when,  in  fact,  he  was  paying  a  high  price  for  all  the  article 
contained  of  value,  and  was  then  paying  freight  on  one-fourth  of  the  bulk 
in  an  article  that  was  of  no  use  to  him  whatever. 

In  some  States,  notably  in  North  Carolina,  the  law  in  regard  to  fer- 
tilizers is  so  rigid  and  so  strictly  enforced,  that  manufacturers  are  compelled 
to  fully  come  up  to  the  guarantee  printed  on  their  bags,  and  in  these  States 
the  farmer  is  pretty  sure  to  get  what  he  buys,  and  the  only  objection  is  that 
the  prices  charged  are  entirely  too  high. 

The  great  argument  which  the  manufacturers  of  fertilizers  have  used 
against  home  mixing  has  been  that  the  farmer  cannot  mix  the  goods  as  well 
as  they  can  with  their  machinery,  and  that  if  he  could  do  so,  they  could  with 
their  machinery  mix  them  more  cheaply.  The  fact  is  that  with  the  materials 
at  hand,  the  farmer  can  mix  in  any  proportion  fully  as  well  as  the  factories 


Mixing  Fertilizers  on  the  Farm — 87 

mix  the  goods,  and  at  a  cost  that  will  not  be  felt  at  all.  According  to  the 
organ  of  the  fertilizer  makers  the  cost  of  mixing  and  putting  their  goods  on 
the  market  is  about  $6  per  ton,  and  the  same  paper  figures  up  this  cost  by 
adding  up  drummers'  salaries,  postage,  telegrams,  travelling  expenses  and 
a  lot  of  other  items,  none  of  which  the  farmer  mixing  his  own  goods  would 
have  to  pay,  but  which  are  really  paid  by  the  manufacturers  and  those  who 
buy  from  them  ready  mixed  goods.  So  the  fact  is  that  the  farmer  can  not 
only  get  the  materials  at  retail  for  less  than  they  are  charged  for  them  in 
the  ready  mixed  articles,  but  he  can  also  mix  them  far  cheaper  than  the 
factories  can.  The  same  bulletin  to  which  we  have  referred  above,  says  in 
regard  to  the  guarantees  and  claims  of  the  fertilizer  makers:  "Guarantees 
are  often  designedly  confusing  and  convey  wrong  impressions.  Nitrogen, 
phosphoric  acid  and  potash  are  what  make  fertilizers  agriculturally  and 
commercially  valuable.  They  are  often  expressed,  however,  in  guarantees 
as  ammonia,  bone-phosphate  of  lime  and  sulphate  of  potash.  This  is  done 
to  make  a  semblance  of  giving  large  percentages  of  plant-food.  Thus  ni- 
trogen equivalent  to  ammonia  2.50  per  cent,  promises  really  only  2.06  per 
cent,  of  nitrogen;  available  phosphoric  acid  equivalent  to  bone-phosphate  of 
lime  21.80  per  cent,  promises  but  10  per  cent,  available;  and  potash  (sul- 
phate) 3.70  per  cent,  but  2  per  cent,  of  potash."  Buyers  should  remember 
these  facts,  and  ignore  in  the  guarantee  everything  except  the  lower  figures 
for  nitrogen,  (not  ammonia  or  nitrogen  equivalent  to  ammonia),  available 
phosphoric  acid  and  potash  (not  sulphate  of  potash,  or  potash  sulphate,  or 
potash  equivalent  to  or  equal  to  sulphate).  The  law  in  the  State  of  North 
Carolina,  which  in  most  respects  is  the  best  in  the  country  and  the  most 
rigidly  enforced,  allows  no  sliding  scale  of  percentages  on  the  bags,  but  re- 
quires that  the  sack  shall  have  printed  on  it  the  actual  percentage  of  nitrogen, 
phosphoric  acid  and  potash.  Only  this  and  nothing  more.  If  all  the 
States  would  pass  a  similar  law  there  would  soon  be  an  end  to  the  long  so- 
called  analyses  printed  on  the  bags,  simply  for  the  purpose  of  befogging  the 
farmer  into  the  belief  that  the  sack  contains  a  great  deal  more  than  it  does. 

We  have  at  hand  from  a  correspondent  a  sample  of  a  commercial  fer- 
tilizer, on  which  is  printed  the  following: 

Guaranteed  Analysis. 

Ammonia   2.10  to  2.50  per  cent. 

Total  phosphoric  acid 8.50  to  9.50  per  cent. 

Available  phosphoric  acid 7.40  to  8.40  per  cent. 

Potash  (actual) 2.15  to  2.65  per  cent. 

Equivalent  to  potash  sulphate 4.10  to  5.25  per  cent. 

Magnesia,  organic  matter,  etc 60  to  70  per  cent. 


88 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

Now  all  this  means  that  the  article  has  in  it,  if  the  analysis  is  correct, 
nitrogen  1.73  per  cent.,  available  phosphoric  acid  7.40  per  cent,  and  potash 
2.15  per  cent.  All  the  rest  is  put  there  to  make  the  farmer  think  there  is 
a  great  deal  in  it,  while  it  is,  in  fact,  a  very  low  grade  fertilizer.  The  "organic 
matter,  etc.,"  is  probably  "filler"  put  in  to  make  bulk.  This  is  but  a  single 
sample  of  thousands  of  similar  "analyses"  on  fertilizer  sacks  all  over  this 
country.  The  manufacturer  who  cannot  state  Just  what  his  article  contains 
must  be  a  poor  manufacturer,  or  puts  the  sliding  scale  there  to  crawl  out  on. 
If  you  see  a  sliding  scale  of  percentage  you  may  be  sure  that  the  lowest 
figure  comes  nearest  to  what  is  the  actual  per  cent.  .  But  there  is  a  great 
deal  less  of  actual  swindling  in  fertilizers  since  the  laws  for  the  inspection 
have  been  adopted  in  nearly  all  the  States,  and  the  farmer  dealing  with 
firms  of  reputation  can  usually  depend  on  getting  what  he  orders.  The 
great  objection  to  the  ready  mixed  goods  is  not  their  quality,  but  the  fact 
that  they  are  sold  at  too  high  a  price,  as  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  buyers 
at  retail  can  get  the  same  plant-foods  for  less  money.  Bulletin  No.  139  of 
the  New  Jersey  Station,  says  in  regard  to  home  mixing  of  fertilizers :  "Home 
mixing  has  been  carried  on  with  entire  satisfaction  by  a  number  of  farmers 
for  several  years.  The  Station  has  encouraged  these  efforts  as  of  value  to 
the  individuals  themselves  and  an  object  lesson  to  their  neighbors,  since  it 
renders  them  familiar  with  the  kinds  and  forms  of  plant-food,  teaches  them 
to  think  of  pounds  of  nitrogen,  phosphoric  acid  and  potash,  rather  than  tons 
of  a  particular  phosphate,  and  in  general  unfolds  the  mystery  which  envel- 
opes the  make-up  of  fertilizers  in  the  minds  of  many." 

Bulletin  No.  53  of  the  Maine  Station  well  says :  "That  which  transcends 
everything  else  in  the  purchase  of  fertilizers  is  to  know  tvhat  you  want  and 
then  get  it — ^get  it  as  cheap  as  you  can  and  still  get  the  plant  food  needed. 
No  one  would  think  of  buying  salt  for  sugar  because  it  can  be  obtained  at 
a  lower  price,  but  the  writer  has  knowledge  of  the  purchase  of  nitrogen  when 
potash  was  needed,  simply  because  the  trade  value  of  a  nitrogenous  fertilizer 
as  printed  exceeded  its  selling  price." 

In  Bulletin  No.  132  of  the  New  Jersey  Station,  a  number  of  analyses 
are  given  of  fertilizers  mixed  by  farmers  for  their  own  use,  and  the  results 
show  that  the  proportions  of  the  different  constituents  was  as  well  main- 
tainded  as  in  the  manufactured  goods.  "As  a  method  of  economical  pur- 
chase of  fertilizers,  either  mixing  them  at  home,  or  having  them  especially 
compounded  at  the  factory,  seems  to  be  equally  recommended  by  the  experi- 
ence here  reported.  This  opportunity  of  saving  in  the  purchase  of  fertilizers 
is  open  to  all  who  will  study  their  crops  and  soils,  learn  what  they  need,  and 
secure  it  by  the  more  business-like  method.     It  is  a  combination  of  com- 


Mixing  Fertilizers  on  the  Farm — 89 

prehension,  co-operation  and  cash  that  effects  these  reductions  in  the  cost  of 
fertilizer  supplies."  This  is  the  secret  of  the  whole  matter.  The  prices  of 
ready  mixed  fertilizers  have  to  be  kept  high  because  of  the  long  credits  and 
bad  debts,  and  the  men  who  buy  them  have  to  pay  these  bad  debts  of  others 
in  advanced  prices.  Buying  the  materials  for  cash  in  wholesale  lots  through 
a  combination  of  neighbors  will  always  result  in  a  great  saving.  It  is  far 
better  to  borrow  the  money  to  pay  cash  for  fertilizers  than  to  pay  the  credit 
price. 

Bulletin  No.  65  of  the  Vermont  Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  says : 
"Home  mixtures  made  in  this  State  furnished  from  30  to  50  per  cent,  more 
plant-food  at  the  same  cost  than  did  average  manufacturers'  mixtures." 

Dr.  C.  W.  Dabney,  Director  of  the  Tennessee  Experiment  Station, 
writes:  "Farmers  who  take  their  life  work  seriously  and  study  earnestly  the 
experimental  work  of  the  State  Stations,  for  the  purpose  of  informing  them- 
selves with  regard  to  the  useful  ingredients  of  fertilizers,  the  proper  mode 
of  applying  them  and  such  matters,  are  getting  more  and  more  into  the 
habit  of  buying  the  raw  materials  for  fertilizers  and  mixing  them  themselves, 
or  else  they  have  a  compound  mixed  at  a  factory  according  to  their  own 
formula  and  from  materials  of  their  own  selection." 

Farmers'  Bulletin  No.  84,  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  treats  of 
the  various  objections  raised  to  the  practice  of  home  mixing.  "Farmers  are 
persuaded  that  the  compounding  of  fertilizers  is  an  intricate  and  difficult 
matter,  requiring  extensive  acquaintance  with  chemistry,  costly  machinery 
and  great  technical  skill.  The  case  well  illustrates  the  old  adage,  that  a 
half  truth  is  a  whole  falsehood.  The  production  and  manufacture  of  fer- 
tilizing materials — that  is,  the  selection,  quarrying,  grinding  and  acidulation 
of  phosphatic  rock;  the  drying  and  grinding  of  slaughter  house  refuse,  the 
production  and  refining  of  such  materials  as  nitrate  of  soda,  sulphate  of 
ammonia  and  muriate  of  potash — all  these  are  distinctly  manufacturing 
processes,  which  require  chemical  or  technical  knowledge,  skill  in  manipula- 
tion, and  expensive  machinery.  But  these  operations  are  entirely  separate 
and  distinct  from  the  compounding  of  mixed  fertilizers.  Each  of  the 
materials  named  comes  from  the  manufacturer  in  condition  to  be  used  by 
itself  as  a  fertiliser,  and  each  one  is  so  used  for  special  purposes.  The  com- 
pounding of  these  materials  under  a  proprietary  brand  into  a  mixed  fertilizer, 
is  no  more  a  manufacture  than  is  the  mixing  of  a  ration  of  corn  meal  and 
bran  to  be  fed  to  a  cow.  The  only  difference  is  that  the  ration  which  is 
designed  to  be  distributed  uniformly  to  thousands  or  millions  of  plants 
requires  to  be  more  carefully  mixed  than  that  fed  to  a  single  cow.  If  we 
were  feeding  each  plant  by  itself  no  mixing  would  be  necessary,  or  if  we 


90 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

were  giving  the  different  elements  of  a  ration  at  different  times;  as  for 
instance^  when  we  apply  superphosphate  and  muriate  of  potash  to  wheat  in 
the  fall  and  follow  with  nitrate  of  soda  in  the  spring.  This  point,  of  the 
essential  difference  between  those  operations  which  are  legitimately  called 
manufacturing  and  those  which  are  simply  mixing,  should  be  clearly  under- 
stood. When  the  farmer  learns  that  he  can  mix  his  own  fertilizers  and 
thereby  materially  reduce  their  cost,  the  use  of  fertilizing  materials  will  be 
largely  increased,  and  the  final  outcome  will  be  a  benefit  and  not  an  injury 
to  the  legitimate  trade  in  fertilizers." 

This  is  just  what  the  writer  has  been  insisting  upon  through  the  agri- 
cultural press  for  years,  but  such  is  the  short  sighted  policy  of  the  manu- 
facturers of  fertilizing  materials,  who  are  generally  at  the  same  time  mixers 
of  the  materials  in  any  number  of  fancy  brands,  many  of  them  identical' 
except  in  name,  that  they  put  all  sorts  of  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  farmer's 
getting  the  raw  materials  for  mixing  his  fertilizers  at  home,  and  constantly 
endeavor  to  make  the  farmer  think  that  their  process  of  putting  these  ma- 
terials together  is  a  matter  of  great  skill  and  experience,  and  cannot  be  done 
without  the  use  of  expensive  machinery. 

Machinery  is  used,  of  course,  in  the  mixing  on  a  large  scale,  as  a  matter 
of  economy,  and  to  increase  the  profit  to  the  mixer. 

Bulletin  No.  173  of  the  New  York  (Geneva)  Station  showed  that  the 
average  selling  price  of  mixed  fertilizers  in  that  State  per  ton  averaged 
$6.25  more  than  the  separate  ingredients  could  be  bought  for  at  retail.  Inas- 
much as  this  was  far  higher  than  the  actual  cost  to  the  large  mixer,  it  can 
easily  be  seen  that  the  profits  of  mixing  on  a  large  scale  must  be  large,  and 
that  the  wise  farmer  can  easily  save,  even  in  buying  in  retail  quantities,  a 
considerable  sum. 

Bulletin  No.  45  of  the  Maine  Station  says;  "One  of  the  claims  which 
fertilizer  manufacturers  are  making  for  the  superiority  of  their  goods  over 
home  mixed  fertilizers  is  that  the  former  are  manufactured.  This  should 
mean,  if  it  means  anything,  that  the  goods  are  more  evenly  mixed,  and 
therefore,  more  uniform.  In  the  tables  given  on  the  previous  pages  it  will 
be  found  that  in  some  instances  in  which  two  samples  of  the  same  brand  have 
been  taken  and  analyzed,  that  they  differ  from  each  other  quite  materially. 
The  samples  were  taken  with  a  great  deal  of  care  by  experienced  men  from  a 
large  number  of  packages.  It  would  not  seem  difficult  to  make  home  mixed 
fertilizers  which  should  run  as  uniformly  as  some  of  the  brands  here  re- 
ported upon. 

Bulletin  No.  79  of  the  Kentucky  Station  says  in  regard  to  the  selection 
of  the  proper  fertilizers,  "Their  profitable  use  will  depend  upon  a  knowledge 


Mixing  Fertilizers  on  the  Farm — 91 

of  the  needs  of  the  particular  soil  to  which  they  are  to  be  applied,  and  the 
requirements  of  the  crop  to  be  grown.  The  latter  knowledge  has  been  gained 
once  for  all  for  most  farm  crops  by  a  scientific  study  of  these  crops,  but  the 
needs  of  the  soil  must  in  most  cases  be  learned  by  the  farmer  himself,  either 
from  systematic  field  experiments,  or  by  observation  and  experience.  If  it 
is  necessary  for  a  farmer  to  use  commercial  fertilizers,  and  he  is  working  upon 
a  kind  of  soil  that  has  not  already  been  tested,  we  believe  it  will  pay  him  to 
learn  its  needs  by  carrying  out  systematic  experiments  with  fertilizers.  The 
experiments  made  at  this  Station  amply  illustrate  this.  It  would  be  very 
unprofitable  to  buy  phosphates  for  use  on  soil  like  that  of  the  Station  farm, 
but  potash  salts  could  be  profitably  used  there  on  most  crops.  This  is  because 
the  soil  is  already  rich  in  phosphates.  But  if  it  were  deficient  in  phosphates, 
as  is  the  case  with  many  soils  in  this  State,  it  would  be  unprofitable  to  use 
potash  salts  alone,  and  one  would  have  to  supply  phosphates.  It  is,  therefore, 
necessary  in  purchasing  a  commercial  fertilizer  to  consider,  first,  what  our 
soil  needs  for  the  crop  to  be  raised,  and  then  to  look  for  the  fertilizer  contain- 
ing most  of  these  substances,  in  an  available  form,  as  shown  by  its  chemical 
analysis  and  guaranteed  by  the  manufacturer,  at  the  least  cost.  It  is  well 
to  bear  in  mind,  also,  that  nitrogen  compounds  are  the  most  expensive  con- 
stituents of  commercial  fertilizers,  and  if  we  can  keep  up  our  nitrogen  supply 
by  means  of  clover,  cow  peas,  or  other  leguminous  plants,  or  by  barnyard 
manure,  and  purchase  only  such  phosphates  and  potash  as  may  be  needed,  we 
will  have  accomplished  a  great  saving."  Here,  too,  is  a  strong  argument  for 
home  mixing,  since  it  will  rarely  happen  that  we  can  get  a  ready  mixed  fer- 
tilizer exactly  suited  to  our  soil  and  crops  without  buying  at  the  same  tiitie 
something  we  do  not  need.  Bulletin  No.  80  of  the  Vermont  Station  shows 
that  in  the  past  spring  (1900)  the  average  price  of  mixed  fertilizers  was 
$28.73,  and  the  average  value,  based  on  the  retail  price  of  the  ingredients, 
was  $18.08,  another  evidence  of  the  saving  to  be  made  in  home  mixing. 

But  the  most  complete  investigation  of  the  value  of  home  mixing  of  fer- 
tilizers has  been  made  at  the  Ohio  Agricultural  Experiment  Station.  It  is 
claimed  by  the  factory  mixers  of  fertilizers  that  in  using  tankage  as  a  source 
of  nitrogen  they  have  a  great  advantage  in  the  fact  that  they  treat  their 
tankage  with  sulphuric  acid  to  render  it  more  soluble,  and  hence  far  better 
than  the  untreated  tankage  used  in  the  simple  mixtures.  It  was  shown  by 
the  experiment  at  the  Ohio  Station  that  this  causes  great  loss  of  nitrogen 
from  fall  application  to  the  wheat  crop  and  "it  follows,  therefore,  that  if  the 
treatment  of  tankage  with  sulphuric  acid  serves  to  make  its  nitrogen  as  solu- 
ble as  that  in  sulphate  of  ammonia — and  this  is  precisely  what  is  claimed  for 
it — then  such  treatment  is  injurious  and  not  beneficial  to  him  who  would 


92 — Crop  Growing  and-  Crop  Feeding 

use  tankage  in  the  fall  as  a  carrier  of  nitrogen  to  wheat.*  *  *  *  Our  experi- 
ments do  not  support  the  claim  that  the  acidulation  of  tankage  is  necessary, 
unless  the  tankage  has  been  adulterated  with  leather  scraps  or  similar 
material;  they  rather  show  that  it  is  a  disadvantage.  *  *  *  The  sulphuric 
acid  used  in  acidulation  costs  only  about  one-third  as  much  per  pound  as  the 
fertilizer  is  sold  for.  In  point  of  fact,  the  manufacturer  can  very  well  afford 
to  pay  $6  to  $8  per  ton  for  sulphuric  acid  to  be  sold  again  at  $20  to  $30.  *  * 
In  the  field  experiments  of  this  Station  factory  mixed  fertilizers,  made  by 
firms  of  high  standing,  produce  no  greater  crops  than  home  mixed  fertilizers 
of  equivalent  composition.  The  cost  of  the  factory  mixed  fertilizers  was 
greater  by  50  to  90  per  cent,  than  that  of  the  equivalent  home  mixtures. 
Physical  and  chemical  examination  of  the  two  forms  of  mixtures  show  that 
the  factory  mixed  fertilizer  is  not  more  homogenous  in  its  character  than  that 
mixed  by  the  farmer.  Fertilizer  materials  may  be  as  perfectly  mixed  with  a 
shovel  on  a  barn  floor  or  in  a  large  box  as  by  the  most  elaborate  mixing 
machinery." 

how  to  mix  pertilizer. 

There  is  a  widely  prevalent  idea  that  the  chemical  constituents  of  a  fer- 
tilizer must  have  a  "filler"  mixed  with  them  to  make  bulk.  This  notion  has 
arisen  from  the  fact  that  fertilizer  mixers  commonly  use  worthless  materials 
for  fillers  in  low  grade  goods,  so  as  to  be  able  to  sell  them  at  an  apparently 
low  price,  while  still  getting  full  prices  for  all  that  is  of  value  in  them.  The 
v-arious  fertilizing  constituents  are  already  combined  in  such  a  way  that  no 
further  filler  is  needed,  and  they  only  need  to  be  mixed  in  the  desired  propor- 
tions. This  mixing  we  have  shown  can  be  as  well  done  on  a  barn  floor  as  by 
the  most  elaborate  machinery. 

Having  determined  from  a  formula  the  proportions  in  which  the  articles 
are  to  be  mixed,  is  is  a  simple  matter  to  spread  them  out  in  layers  on  the  barn 
floor,  and  then  having  set  up  an  ordinary  sand  screen  to  shovel  the  mass 
through  the  screen  repeatedly,  beating  up  all  the  lumps,  till  a  perfect  mixture 
is  made.  After  the  mass  has  been  shovelled  through  the  screen  two  or  three 
times  it  will  be  sufficiently  mixed  for  all  practical  purposes.  In  fact,  if  we 
could  distribute  the  materials  over  the  land  in  the  exact  proportions  needed, 
there  would  be  no  necessity  for  mixing,  them  at  all,  but  this  would  take  a 
great  deal  more  labor  than  mixing  and  spreading  at  one  going  over  the 
ground. 

We  give  elsewhere  a  series  of  formulas  adapted  to  various  crops  on  dif- 
erent  soils.     These  are  largely  for  complete  fertilizer  mixtures  containing  due 


Mixing  Fertilizers  on  the  Farm — 93 

proportions  of  nitrogen,  phosphoric  acid  and  potash.  But  it  must  not  be 
supposed  that  these  are  in  every  case  necessary  or  profitable.  They  have  been 
devised  from  the  study  of  the  manurial  requirements  of  the  various  crops,  as- 
suming that  the  soil  needs  them  all.  But  we  will  try  to  show  how,  by  good 
farming  and  a  proper  rotation  of  crops,  we  can  avoid  the  constant  application 
of  commercial  fertilizers  to  every  crop  grown.  The  Experiment  Stations 
have  devoted  so  much  time  and  labor  to  the  study  of  the  manurial  require- 
ments of  crops  that  farmers  are  apt  to  imagine  that  all  they  have  to  do  is  to 
suit  a  fertilizer  to  the  crop  in  order  to  make  it. 


CHAPTEE  XI. 

THE  MAINTENANCE  OF  FERTILITY, 

The  maintaining  and  increasing  of  the  productive  capacity  of  the  soil 
in  a  profitable  manner  should  be  the  ultimate  aim  in  the  use  of  manures  and 
fertilizers  of  any  kind,  and  not  the  mere  speculating  on  how  much  sale  crop 
we  can  get  through  the  use  of  a  certain  fertilizer  mixture.  This  has  been 
the  course  over  large  sections  of  the  country,  especially  among  the  cotton 
farmers  of  the  South,  until  with  the  majority  of  the  farmers  the  first  question 
asked  is,  "How  much  and  what  kind  of  fertilizer  shall  I  use  to  get  a  certain 
crop  ?"  Men  frequently  write  to  me  that  they  have  a  certain  field  which  last 
year  made,  say,  ten  bushels  of  corn  per  acre,  and  they  want  to  know  what  and 
how  much  fertilizer  they  shall  apply  to  that  same  field  to  make  it  produce  50 
bushels  of  corn  per  acre.  We  have  to  reply,  of  course,  that  it  cannot  be  done 
in  that  way.  The  physical  and  mechanical  condition  of  the  soil  has  as  much 
to  do  with  its  productivity  as  the  amount  of  plant-food  it  may  contain.  When 
a  field,  through  a  long  course  of  bad  treatment,  has  been  deprived  of  its 
humus,  and  has  gotten  into  a  bad  mechanical  condition,  no  amount  of  fertil- 
izer will  at  once  restore  it  to  its  normal  state  of  productiveness.  It  took 
years  to  complete  the  robbery  of  the  soil  and  years  of  proper  farming  will  be 
required  to  restore  it. 

USING  FERTILIZERS  IN"  CONTINUOUS  CROPPING. 

There  are  many  men  in  the  South  who  imagine  that  they  are  farming 
profitably  by  growing  cotton  year  after  year  on  the  same  ground  with  an  an- 
nual application  of  fertilizers,  simply  because  they  show  some  profit  over  the 
cost,  and  not  reflecting  that  they  could  secure  greater  profits  by  proper  rota- 
tion and  a  smaller  expenditure  of  fertilizers.  As  compared  with  real  farm- 
ing, their  cultivation  can  easily  be  shown  to  be  unprofitable.  Especially  is 
this  true  when  the  crops  are  the  cereal  grains.     At  the  Ohio  Station  a  long 

(94) 


The  Maintenance  of  Fertility — 95 

series  of  experiments  have  been  made  with  various  rotations  and  also  with 
cereal  crops  grown  on  the  same  soil  year  after  year  with  the  use  of  commer- 
cial fertilizers.  They  thus  summarize  the  results  of  the  continuous  crop- 
ping. "At  the  prices  at  which  mixed  fertilizers  are  sold  in  Ohio  the  attempt 
to  furnish  all  the  nitrogen,  as  well  as  all  the  phosphoric  acid  and  potash,  re- 
quired to  produce  increase  in  cereal  crops  grown  in  continuous  culture,  has 
invariably  resulted  in  pecuniary  loss,  although  very  large  increase  of  crop 
has  been  thus  produced/'  "The  rotation  of  cereals  with  nitrogen  gathering 
crops,  therefore,  has  been  shown  to  be  absolutely  essential  to  the  profitable 
use  of  commercial  fertilizers  in  any  form." 

This  confirms  all  that  we  have  found  through  a  long  experience  in  the 
cultivation  of  the  soil.  The  constant  use  of  complete  fertilizer  mixtures  for 
the  production  of  sale  crops  only,  has  brought  poverty  to  the  soil  over  large 
sections  of  the  country,  and  of  course  poverty  to  the  cultivator.  It  is  for  the 
purpose  of  aiding  in  the  bringing  about  of  a  change  in  this  respect,  and  of 
showing  how  fertilizers  may  be  used  profitably  for  the  improvement  of  the 
condition  of  the  farm  and  the  farmer  alike,  that  we  have  undertaken  the  work 
of  writing  this  book.  The  writer  is  a  Southern  man,  born  and  raised  in  the 
South,  and  it  has  been  his  life's  work  to  do  all  that  he  can  to  aid  the 
farmers  of  the  South  especially,  to  the  adoption  of  better  methods,  for  he  is 
convinced  that  the  wasteful  use  of  fertilizers  and  the  continuous  cropping 
of  the  land  in  sale  crops  is  responsible  for  the  sad  condition  of  farms  and. 
farmers  in  the  South.  And  it  is  not  only  in  the  South,  but  in  other  parts 
of  the  country,  where  the  farmers  are  just  beginning  to  realize  that  their  soil 
is  becoming  run  down,  and  needs  help,  that  there  is  danger  that  they,  too, 
will  imagine  that  in  the  bag  of  fertilizer  they  can  find  all  that  they  need,  and 
they  are  beginning  to  start  in  the  same  road  towards  "old  fields"  that  the 
South  has  travelled.  The  old,  down  hill  road  has  been  an  easy  one  to  follow, 
and  required  little  thought;  the  new  one  calls  for  careful  study  and  experi- 
mentation on  the  part  of  the  farmer.  He  can  no  longer  succeed  by  the  old, 
happy-go-lucky  methods,  but  must  become  a  student  and  a  book  farmer  to  a 
great  extent.  By  maintaining  the  fertility  of  his  land  he  can  alone  hope  to 
succeed.  This  cannot  be  done  by  an  annual  gambling  in  fertilizers  and  the 
growing  of  a  single  crop  year  after  year  on  the  same  land.  No  matter  what 
the  crops  are,  whether  wheat  on  the  plains  of  the  Northwest,  corn  on  the 
prairies  of  the  Middle  West,  tobacco  in  Virginia  or  Ohio,  or  cotton  in  the 
South,  single  cropping  everywhere  tends  to  soil  exhaustion  and  the  depletion 
of  the  farmer's  resources. 

One  characteristic  of  the  Northern  farmers  in  contrast  to  their  brothers 
in  the  South,  is  the  readiness  with  which  they  see  errors  in  their  work  and 


96 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

make  a  change  for  the  better,  while  the  innate  conservatism  of  the  Southern 
farmer  holds  him  longer  in  the  old  ruts  than  his  Northern  competitor.  The 
great  decrease  in  the  wheat  crop  on  the  plains  of  Dakota  showed  plainly  that 
the  wheat  growers  there  were,  as  we  have  said,  straight  on  the  road  to  "old 
fields"  as  those  of  the  South  have  long  been.  Bat  of  late,  the  farmers  of 
Dakota  are  realizing  their  error,  and  are  going  into  cattle.  They  can  do  this 
all  the  more  profitably  now  that  the  sheep  have  driven  the  cattle  from  the 
great  ranges  of  Colorado,  Utah  and  other  sections  where  cattle  formerly 
were  raised  in  immense  numbers.  These  great  ranges  of  pul)lic  land  no 
longer  carry  their  herds  of  cattle,  for  sheep  have  gotten  possession ;  the  cattle 
of  the  future  will  not  be  raised  on  the  free  ranges,  but  on  the  lands  belonging 
to  the  farmer,  and  the  cattle  feeding  of  the  Eastern  States  will  once  more 
become  profitable.  The  Dakota  wheat  growers  are  wise  enough  to  see  the 
error  of  their  one-cropping,  and  to  take  advantage  of  the  changed  conditions 
in  the  cattle  industry.  Having  taken  this  step  before  the  "old  fields"  were 
present  in  all  their  hideous  barrenness,  the  Dakota  farmer  will  have  the  great 
advantage  of  his  Southern  brother  in  the  unexhausted  condition  of  his  soil 
and  its  capacity  for  the  production  of  grass.  But  if  the  farmers  in  a  section 
where  cattle  must  be  housed  and  fed  for  nine  months  and  where  great  storage 
must  be  made  of  winter  feed,  can  produce  beef  cattle  at  a  profit,  what  should 
the  farmers  of  sections  which  can  produce  the  finest  of  forage  plants  in  the 
greatest  abundance  and  where  the  cattle  can  roam  in  the  fields  nearly  every 
day  in  the  year,  do?  We  cannot  too  often  insist  that  there  can  be  no  real 
prosperity  on  the  farm,  no  real  home  making  and  nowhere  near  the  profit  in 
farming,  with  one  crop,  and  selling  that  in  the  raw  state.  The  growing  of 
forage  crops  and  the  keeping  of  live  stock  lies  at  the  very  foundation  of  all 
rational  methods  of  soil  improvement  and  the  maintenance  of  the  fertility 
of  our  acres.  The  farmer  who  transforms  some  of  his  raw  products  into  a 
more  finished  product  always  realizes  a  larger  price  for  his  product  than  the 
man  who  constantly  sells  only  the  raw  product.  Some  years  ago  the  writer 
made  a  visit  to  Nebraska  for  the  purpose  of  studying  the  growth  and  manu- 
facture of  beet  sugar  as  practiced  there.  We  were  struck  with  the  beauty  of 
the  wide  spread  of  corn  fields,  and  took  occasion  to  talk  with  the  farmers  not 
only  about  their  beet  growing,  but  in  regard  to  other  crops.  Asking  one  Ger- 
man farmer  what  corn  was  worth  per  bushel,  he  replied  that  he  believed  it  was 
about  20  to  25  cents,  but  that  he  did  not  sell  corn  as  some  of  his  neighbors 
did.  His  corn  went  into  hogs  and  they  carried  themselves  to  the  depot,  and 
he  got  50  cents  a  bushel  for  his  com  and  had  the  manure  left,  though  he 
seemed  to  care  little  for  that,  for  like  most  farmers  on  the  new  prairies,  he 
thought  the  soil  inexhaustible,  like  those  further  east  who  are  now  buying 


The  Maintenance  of  Fertility — 97 

fertilizers.  I  said  to  this  man  that  his  course  was  wise,  but  that  he  might 
go  still  further,  for  I  had  noticed  that  in  the  thriving  young  city  near  him 
the  grocery  stores  sold  only  the  packed  hams  and  bacon  from  Chicago,  and 
that  his  pigs  had  paid  the  freight  both  ways  and  a  profit  to  the  packer,  and 
that  he  could  do  some  home  packing  and  sell  the  bacon  as  well  as  they  and 
probably  get  a  better  price  than  the  packer's  meat  brought.  The  German 
seemed  to  catch  the  idea  and  remarked  that  he  believed  he  would  get  75  cents 
for  his  corn.  As  I  write,  the  hams  of  the  packing  houses  can  be  bought  at 
retail  here  for  10  to  15  cents  per  pound,  while  at  the  same  stores  the  famous 
hams  of  the  Southeast  Virginia  farmers  are  selling  for  22  cents  per  pound. 
By  the  production  of  a  superior  quality  of  cured  product,  the  farmer  can 
realize  large  prices  for  his  grain  and  not  have  to  take  what  the  market  offers 
for  the  raw  product.  Lay  it  down  as  a  law  that  no  country  or  community 
ever  became  permanently  rich  by  the  sale  of  its  raw  products  only.  To  some 
extent  the  South  is  beginning  to  learn  this,  and  all  over  the  country  cotton 
mills  are  being  built  and  run  at  a  profit  and  the  labor  drawn  to  them  from 
the  farms  has  to  be  fed  by  the  farms,  and  a  new  inducement  is  offered  to  the 
Southern  farmer  to  produce  food  crops,  as  his  market  is  growing  more  rapidly 
than  its  supply. 

WHY  A  SHORT  ROTATION  IS  BEST. 

The  Ohio  Station,  in  the  series  of  experiments  undertaken  for  the  pur- 
pose of  demonstrating  the  best  method  for  maintaining  the  fertility  of  the 
soil,  arrived  af  the  following  conclusion :  "Thus  far  in  these  experiments,  the 
surplus  nitrogen  accumulated  by  a  crop  of  clover,  the  roots  only  being  left  in 
the  ground,  has  not  been  more  than  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  the 
one  crop  immediately  following  the  clover.*  *  *  *  it  appears  to  be  clear, 
therefore,  that  under  the  conditions  of  this  experiment,  which  is  made  on 
soils  of  reduced  fertility,  and  on  which  there  has  been  no  systematic  culture 
of  leguminous  crops  previous  to  the  beginning  of  this  te&t,  we  are  not  main- 
taining in  the  soil  a  supply  of  nitrogen  sufficient  for  maximum  crop  produc- 
tion by  simply  growing  one  crop  of  clover  in  five  years,  the  roots  of  which 
only  are  left  in  the  ground,  the  tops  being  made  into  hay  and  removed  from 
the  land."  Hence  it  is  evident  that  where  it  is  desirable  to  have  a  rotation 
extending  over  five  years  there  must  be  another  leguminous  crop  introduced 
in  order  that  the  supply  of  nitrogen  may  be  maintained  for  the  production  of 
maximum  crops.  This  can  easily  be  accomplished  in  a  three  or  four  year 
rotation,  and  farmers  in  sections  where  it  has  long  been  the  practice  to  run 
the  land  in  grass  as  long  as  the  mowing  could  be  kept  good,  before  going  back 


98 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

to  corn  and  small  grain,  are  beginning  to  realize  that  they  have  been  losing 
greatly  by  the  practice,  and  that  permanent  pastures  and  a  short  rotation  in 
the  cultivated  land  are  the  things  to  be  sought  for.  The  reason  for  the  desira- 
bility of  the  short  rotation  and  the  more  frequent  bringing  in  of  the  legumes 
is  obvious  if  we  reflect  on  the  nature  of  the  nitrogen.  Most  of  the  nitrogen 
collected  by  the  legumes  is  in  the  form  of  organic  matter  in  the  roots  left  in 
the  ground.  We  have  shown  that  green  plants  do  not  use  nitrogen  till  in  the 
form  of  a  nitrate.  Hence  this  organic  matter  must  go  through  the  process 
of  decay,  and  of  change  in  the  soil  into  a  nitrate.  This  is,  as  we  have  seen, 
accomplished  through  the  agency  of  the  nitrifying  microbes  in  the  soil.  When 
these  have  done  their  work,  the  nitrogen  contained  in  the  clover  or  pea  roots 
is  transformed  into  a  nitrate,  and  if  not  then  at  once  used  by  the  plants  it  is 
rapidly  washed  out  of  the  soil.  Therefore,  if  there  is  a  long  interval  between 
the  crops  of  legumes,  we  cannot  keep  up  the  supply  of  nitrogen  in  this  way, 
and  will  have  to  resort  to  the  purchase  of  complete  fertilizers,  which  a  short 
rotation  would  render  needless.  But  as  organic  matter  accumulates  in  the 
soil,  forming  humus,  it  is  probable  that  the  complete  nitrification  may  be 
slower  by  reason  of  the  increasing  acidity  which  is  less  favorable  to  the 
activity  of  the  nitrifying  organisms.  Then  it  is  that  the  use  of  lime  becomes 
an  important  adjunct  and  restores  the  favorable  conditions  for  nitrification. 
With  a  three  year  rotation,  a  light  dressing  of  lime  once  in  each  alternate 
round  of  the  rotation  (or  once  in  six  years),  will  be  found  a  great  aid  in  the 
development  of  the  productivity  of  the  soil.  Or  even  a  still  lighter  applica- 
tion every  round  of  the  rotation  may  prove  best. 

A  SHORT  rotation  BEST  FOR  SPECIALIZED  FARMING. 

While  we  are  convinced  that  the  greatest  evil  in  farming  has  been  con- 
tinual cropping  with  a  single  crop,  and  that  the  only  way  towards  the  im- 
provement of  the  soil  is  through  a  diversified  farming,  this  does  not  mean  that 
;i  farmer  should  grow  a  little  of  everything  his  climate  will  produce.  He 
should  study  his  conditions  carefully,  and  find  out  what  is  the  best  money 
crop  for  his  section  and  his  land,  and  then  should  contrive  a  rotation  intended 
to  best  promote  the  success  of  his  money  crop. 

The  wise  farmer  will  always  have  a  specialty,  to  the  increased  production 
of  which  he  will  bend  all  his  energies,  while  endeavoring  in  every  possible 
way  to  reduce  the  cost  of  its  production  by  making  his  subsidiary  crops  aid  in 
the  defraying  of  the  expenses.  His  specialty  may  be  cotton,  tobacco,  wheat, 
corn  or  any  other  particular  crop,  and  his  aim  should  be  to  grow  the  money 
crop  more  cheaply  and  at  the  same  time  to  greater  perfection  than  anyone 


The  Mainteitance  of  Fertility — 99 

around  him,  if  possible.  It  is  not  always  the  sign  of  the  best  farming  for  a 
man  to  grow  a  specially  large  crop  of  something  on  a  small  area  of  land.  The 
phenomenal  yields  of  corn,  for  instance,  which  have  been  produced  in  compe- 
titions for  premiums,  are  interesting  mainly  as  showing  what  can  be  done 
with  heavy  feeding  and  good  culture,  but  they  are  usually  financial  failures. 
What  we  should  aim  at  is  to  get  the  widest  possible  margin  between  the  cost 
of  the  crop  and  its  sale  value.  This  calls  for  skillful  management  of  the 
land,  and  the  best  of  cultivation,  as  well  as  a  wise  selection  of  what  is  to  be 
sold  from  the  farm.  Some  of  our  Southern  friends  have  imagined  that  the 
way  out  of  the  old  one-crop  farming  is  a  diversification  by  which  the  farmer 
shall  grow  someting  of  everything  his  climate  will  allow,  and  shall  not  buy 
anything  which  he  can  grow.  This  sort  of  aimless  diversification  is  not  what 
we  want,  but  a  systematized  agriculture  suited  to  the  conditions  under 
which  the  farmers  live.  The  cotton  farmer  in  the  warm  soils  of  the 
Southern  seaboard  could  doubtless  grow  some  wheat,  but  he  will  soon  find 
that  he  can  buy  all  the  flour  he  needs  more  cheaply  and  of  better  quality  then 
he  can  grow  the  wheat  and  have  it  manufactured  on  a  small  scale.  The 
farmer  in  Southern  Maryland  could  doubtless  grow  a  little  cotton,  as  they 
once  did  under  the  old  home  manufacturing  practice,  but  he  would  soon  find 
that  he  had  better  stick  to  his  wheat  or  tobacco  and  buy  his  cotton  goods. 
The  same  rule  holds  good  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  The  money  crop  of 
each  section  has  become  such  through  the  operation  of  natural  laws,  and  none 
can  afford  to  ignore  these. 

SOME  OF  THE  MISTAKES  MADE. 

When  a  farmer  moves  from  one  section  to  another  having  an  entirely 
different  soil  and  climate,  he  needs  to  study  his  new  conditions  well.  He  will 
in  fact,  have  to  unlearn  a  great  deal  and  to  learn  things  that  he  did  not  for- 
merly need  to  learn.  Going  into  a  new  section,  one  is  apt  to  imagine  that 
he  can  do  a  great  deal  better  than  the  people  already  there,  and  as  he  has 
been  a  good  farmer  in  his  old  location,  he  is  apt  to  think  that  the  same 
methods  which  were  best  there  will  be  the  best  in  his  new  location.  The 
people  among  whom  you  have  come  may  not  be  farming  as  well  as  they  do 
in  the  section  where  you  formerly  lived,  but  there  will  always  be  practices  in 
every  old  settled  section  which  are  the  outgrowth  of  experience  in  that  partic- 
ular soil  and  climate,  and  which  a  newcomer  cannot  afford  to  ignore.  North- 
ern men  coming  into  the  cotton  belt,  as  a  rule,  always  want  to  grow  something 
else  rather  than  cotton.  They  see  that  under  the  old  methods,  the  cotton 
farmers  and  the  cotton  farms  have  grown  poor,  while  the  fertilizer  manuf ac- 


100 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

turers  have  grown  rich.  They  therefore  jump  to  the  conclusion  that  cotton  and 
fertilizers  are  bad  things,  and  are  wrong  in  both  conclusions.  The  warm 
coast  plain  of  the  South  could  have  no  better  money  crop  than  cotton,  and 
the  commercial  fertilizers,  while  bringing  disaster  to  the  farm  and  the  farmer 
v/hen  used  in  the  wasteful  way  in  which  they  have  been  used,  can  be  made, 
in  the  hands  of  a  good  farmer,  the  most  potent  means  for  building  up  the 
fertility  of  the  soil.  For  a  man  to  go  into  the  cotton  belt  and  engage  in 
general  farming  and  ignore  cotton  would  be  a  great  mistake,  for  no  farmer, 
as  a  rule,  can  afford  to  ignore  the  money  crop  of  his  section,  unless  he  has 
some  specialty  which  takes  him  out  of  the  list  of  general  farmers.  It  is 
true  that  there  are  large  sections  of  the  Southern  uplands  where  cotton  is 
grown  and  where  it  should  never  have  been  grown,  and  there,  with  the  growth 
of  knowledge  in  regard  to  farm  methods,  the  farmers  will  soon  learn  that 
their  lands  are  better  adapted  to  grain,  grass  and  stock  than  to  cotton;  and 
in  other  parts  of  the  country  the  methods  are  undergoing  a  gradual  change 
so  that  each  particular  section  is  finding  out  what  it  can  best  do,  and  what 
it  should  let  alone.  Specialization,  with  a  properly  arranged  rotation,  is  the 
road  to  success.  The  growing  of  a  single  crop  year  after  year  on  the  same 
land,  no  matter  how  much  commercial  fertilizer  you  may  buy,  leads  finally  to 
poverty  of  soil  and  of  the  farmer,  too. 

No  matter  what  the  crop  the  result  is  pretty  sure  to  be  the  same.  In 
the  great  peach  growing  section  of  Maryland  and  Delaware,  the  men  who 
have  been,  as  a  rule,  most  successful  in  the  long  run,  have  not  been  the  men 
who  put  their  entire  land  into  peaches ;  but  rather  those  who  recognized  the 
adaptability  of  their  soil  and  climate  to  peach  culture,  who  made  the  short- 
lived peach  trees  simply  a  part  of  their  farming  and  gave  them  the  best  at- 
tention, knowing  that  in  a  few  years  the  orchard  must  go  back  to  crops  of  a 
different  nature,  and  must  be  kept  up  in  its  fertility  to  correspond  with  the 
other  fields  when  one  of  these  was  taken  for  the  orchard.  Prof.  Roberts  in 
his  book,  ^^The  Farmstead,''  says,  "Many  farms  in  Western  N".  Y.  have  been 
almost  exclusively  devoted  to  the  raising  of  grapes,  which,  when  abundant,  or 
moderately  so,  sold  at  ruinous  prices.  It  is  noticed  that  where  only  an 
eighth  or  fourth  of  a  farm  was  devoted  to  vines,  the  yield  was  not  only  pro- 
portionately larger,  but  the  quality  better  than  where  nearly  all  the  land  was 
used  as  a  vineyard.  Where  diversified  agriculture  was  carried  on  to  a  limited 
extent  and  plantations  were  restricted,  the  low  price  of  grapes  made  no  serious 
inroads  on  the  income.  Where  all  the  land  was  given  to  grapes,  work  was 
intermittent,  the  farmer  being  overtasked  at  one  season  of  the  year  and  idle 
at  another.  The  demoralizing  effect  on  the  farmers  and  their  families  of  this 
army  of  unrestrained  youths  and  loungers  of  the  city,  which,  for  a  brief 


The  Maintenance  of  FERTiLirY — 101 

period,  swarms  into  the  districts  devoted  to  specialized  crops,  as  grapes,  ber- 
ries and  hops,  is  marked."  Single  cropping  is  destructive  to  home  life 
wherever  it  is  practiced. 

In  the  cotton  growing  sections,  the  negro  tenants,  who  grow  no  other 
crop,  are  idle  during  the  winter;  as  it  takes  about  all  their  share  of  the  crop 
to  pay  the  merchant  who  carried  them  during  the  summer,  they  are  in  a 
measure  forced  to  live  upon  the  country,  and  the  whole  system  is  an  encour- 
agement to  vice.  If  the  tenants  were  compelled  to  farm  in  a  systematic  man- 
ner it  would  tend  towards  the  building  up  of  the  land  and  the  increased  pros- 
perity of  the  tenant.  There  is  no  hope  for  the  permanent  improvement  of 
the  Southern  cotton  lands  so  long  as  the  "cropping"  system  prevails. 


CHAPTEE  XII. 

HOW   TO    USE   COMMERCIAL   FERTILIZERS   FOR    THE   MAIN- 
TENANCE OF  FERTILITY. 

The  whole  of  the  cotton  growing  section  of  the  South  Atlantic  States 
furnishes  an  object  lesson  of  the  ruin  that  comes  about  through  the  inju- 
dicious use  of  commercial  fertilizers,  and  the  growing  of  cotton  on  the  same 
land  year  after  year.  This  is  most  plainly  seen  on  the  rolling,  red  clay 
uplands.  Steep  hillsides,  which  a  wise  agriculture  would  have  left  in  the 
protecting  forest  cover,  have  been  cleared  and  cultivated  in  cotton.  As  the 
humus  in  the  soil  was  exhausted,  the  red  clay  tended  to  wash  into  gullies 
under  the  great  down  pour  of  summer  rains  that  prevail.  Year  after  year  the 
gullies  have  been  made  larger  till  cultivation  became  impossible,  and  now  all 
over  the  upland  country  of  the  South  these  ruined  and  irreclaimable  hillsides 
are  staring  the  traveler  by  rail  in  the  face,  and  giving  a  bad  impression  of  the 
whole  country ;  and  all  the  rivers  run  loaded  with  the  wasted  fertility  of  the 
soil.  Thousands  of  acres  of  these  gullied  hillsides  can  only  be  redeemed  by 
a  restoration  of  the  great  forest  cover,  which  should  never  have  been  removed 
in  the  first  place.  The  soil  and  the  thousands  of  dollars'  worth  of  fertilizers 
which  have  been  wasted  in  the  culture  of  these  hills  are  both  gone,  and  the 
land  has  been  literally  used  up  for  a  few  crops  of  cotton. 

Fnder  former  conditions,  when  the  large  plantations  with  their  army 
of  slaves  were  in  their  prime,  a  notion  prevailed  that  cotton  was  the  one  crop 
that  would  not  fit  into  an  improving  rotation.  Before  the  introduction  of 
commercial  fertilizers  the  practice  was  to  cultivate  a  piece  of  upland  as  long 
as  it  would  pay  to  grow  the  crop,  and  then  to  take  up  another  piece,  letting 
ihe  first  grow  up  in  pines. 

With  the  change  in  labor  conditions,  and  the  introduction  of  commercial 
fertilizers,  it  was  found  that  the  old  land  could  be  made  to  produce  a  crop, 
and  then  the  farmers  imagined  that  all  they  had  to  do  to  get  a  crop  of  cotton 
was  to  use  commercial  fertilizers.  These  have  been  mainly  purchased  on 
credit,  with  the  invariable  result  that  the  manufacturers,  in  order  to  protect 

(102) 


Commercial  Fertilizers  for  Maintenance  of  Fertility — 103 

themselves  against  loss,  have  been  obliged  to  charge  high  prices  for  their 
goods.  So  long  as  the  cotton  only,  was  sold,  and  the  seed  was  returned  to  the 
land,  the  depreciation  was  slower.  But  of  late  years  the  great  demand  for 
the  seed  in  the  manufacture  of  oil  has  led  to  many  selling  the  seed  outright, 
imagining  that  they  were  making  an  additional  profit  from  the  crop.  While 
it  is  true  that  some  farmers  exchange  their  cotton  seed  for  meal  and  oil  to 
advantage,  there  are  thousands  who  sell  them  regularly.  This  is  especially 
true  of  the  tenant  croppers  whose  interest  in  the  land  is  less  than  their  inter- 
est in  the  immediate  crop.  The  oil,  being  one  of  the  products  of  the  plant 
which  was  derived  from  the  assimilation  of  carbon  from  the  air,  has  no  value 
as  a  manure  to  the  farmer,  and  where  a  fair  exchange  can  be  made,  it  is  better 
for  the  farmer  to  make  the  exchange  and  get  the  more  readily  available  nitro- 
gen in  meal,  while  the  hulls  will  make  a  good  absorbent  of  manure.  It 
is  true  that  they  are  largely  used  as  food  for  stock,  but  they  are  at  best  only 
a  makeshift  of  the  poor  farmer,  for  there  is  not  a  section  in  all  the  cotton  belt 
where  far  better  food  may  not  be  grown,  while  at  the  same  time  the  crop  that 
furnishes  the  food  will  help  the  land. 

One  of  the  saddest  sights  one  sees  daily  in  this  cotton  country  is  a  farmer, 
or  rather  a  man  who  is  cultivating  the  soil,  hauling  home  from  the  city  oil 
mill,  baled  cotton  seed  hulls  to  feed  his  mules  with.  And  this  in  a  country 
where  the  finest  crops  of  the  best  hay  in  the  world  can  be  grown  from  the 
cow  pea,  and  the  land  made  better  for  cotton  production  by  reason  of  the 
forage  growth.  The  whole  crop,  seed  and  all,  was  sold,  and  now  the  farmer 
buys  back  the  poorest  part  of  the  crop  to  feed  the  mules.  And  this  is  not 
the  worst  of  the  whole  sad  business,  for  the  cotton  must  not  only  pay  for  the 
mule  feed,  but  for  the  mules  themselves,  for  the  idea  of  keeping  a  breeding 
animal  never  seems  to  enter  the  minds  of  the  men  who  are  working  in  the  one 
crop  of  cotton;  the  cotton  must  carry  the  whole  burden  while  the  soil  gets 
poorer  and  poorer.  I  write  of  these  things  particularly  because  they  are  daily 
before  me,  but  there  are  farmers  whose  interest  is  in  other  crops,  who  are 
doing  as  badly  as  the  cotton  farmers.  We  recently  traveled  and  spoke  at 
Farmers'  Institutes  in  the  State  of  Maryland,  in  sections  where  the  farmers 
are  improving  in  many  respects,  and  are  paying  attention  to  stock  and  the 
dairy,  and  over  the  wide,  level  fields  where  the  corn  binder  could  run  with 
profit,  I  saw  the  old  time  method  of  topping  the  com  and  stripping  the  blades 
still  practiced,  and  the  stalks  and  husks  left  in  the  field;  thus  sacrificing  a 
large  amount  of  food  that  the  shredder  would  have  turned  to  profit  in  the 
feeding  of  cattle.  In  the  great  com  growing  sections  of  the  Central  West, 
too,  we  see  the  same  waste  of  food  and  lack  of  interest  in  the  complete  utili- 
zation of  the  greatest  forage  crop  of  America,  the  Indian  corn  crop.     There 


104 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

is  not  a  section  of  all  the  corn  growing  belt  where  there  is  not  much  of  this 
waste,  and  where  thousands  of  cattle  could  not  be  fed  instead  of  the  hundreds 
that  are  fed.  And  even  in  the  greatest  corn  growing  sections  of  Ohio,  Indi- 
ana and  Illinois,  there  are  farmers  who  write  to  us  asking  for  fertilizer 
formulas  for  the  restoration  of  the  productiveness  of  their  lands;  while  they 
are  annually  wasting  food  that  would  turn  them  a  profit  in  feeding,  and  give 
manure  for  the  acres  that  are  hungry  for  it.  Properly  managed,  there  is  no 
part  of  the  corn  plant  that  cannot  be  profitably  utilized  as  food  for  stock, 
and  the  greatest  leak  today  in  American  agriculture  is  in  the  waste  of  corn 
stover  all  over  the  land.  No  farmer,  no  matter  how  fresh  and  fertile  his 
soil,  can  afford  to  plow  com  stalks  into  his  land,  when,  by  proper  treatment 
that  will  largely  increase  the  stock  supporting  capacity  of  his  farm.  While 
commercial  fertilizers  are  useful  and  even  indispensable  in  these  high  pressure 
days,  no  farmer  can  afford  to  neglect  the  manurial  resources  of  the  farm 
itself,  or  waste  what  would  give  him  profit  if  rightly  handled  and  fed. 

THE  ROTATION  FOR  THE  COTTON  FARM. 

In  all  the  true  cotton  country,  the  sandy  and  level  lands  along  the  coast 
and  extending  one  or  two  hundred  miles  or  more  inland,  and  the  widespread 
prairie  lands  of  Texas,  cotton  can  be  grown  in  an  improving  rotation  as  the 
special  money  crop  to  the  greatest  advantage.  In  all  the  South  Atlantic 
coast  country  the  use  of  commercial  fertilizers  in  some  way  has  become  a  ne- 
cessity. The  Texas  cotton  growers  as  yet  may  not  feel  the  need  of  them,  but 
it  is  only  a  question  of  a  few  years  when  they  will  need  them,  unless  a  wiser 
method  of  farming  with  cotton  is  adopted.  The  Experiment  Stations  in  the 
cotton  country  have  spent  a  great  deal  of  time  and  labor  on  the  study  of  the 
manurial  requirements  of  the  cotton  crop,  and  far  too  little  time  on  the  dem- 
onstration of  the  most  economical  methods  of  meeting  these  requirements. 
Formulas  without  number  have  been  devised  for  cotton  and  other  crops,  until 
the  farmer  has  been  led  to  suppose  that  all  he  needs  to  grow  the  crop  is  a 
formula  for  a  fertilizer.  While  the  investigations  of  the  Stations  have 
demonstrated  the  needs  of  certain  plants  in  the  way  of  food,  with  great  pre- 
cision, there  is  now  a  great  need  for  the  demonstration  of  economical  methods 
for  the  bringing  about  of  these  conditions  in  the  soil.  While  it  has  been 
demonstrated  that  the  cotton  plant  needs  nitrogen,  phosphoric  acid  and 
potash  in  certain  proportions,  it  by  no  means  follows  that  these  should  be 
purcihased  annually  for  the  purpose,  if  by  proper  farming  we  can  accumulate 
any  of  them  in  the  soil  for  the  crop.  The  great  need  in  all  the  cotton  country, 
the  need  that  no  purchase  of  fertilizers  will  ever  fully  meet,  and  without 


Commercial  Fertilizers  for  Maintenance  of  Fertility — 105 

which  the  development  of  the  productive  character  of  the  Southern  uplands 
must  be  slow ;  is  the  keeping  of  cattle  and  sheep,  and  the  growing  of  forage 
crops  for  their  feeding  in  a  profitable  manner.  "But,"  said  a  cotton  farmer 
to  the  writer,  when  he  was  urging  the  feeding  of  cattle  as  the  very  foundation 
of  profitable  farming,  North  or  South,  "I  do  not  want  to  be  pestered  with 
cattle,  for  I  can  buy  a  lot  of  fertilizer  every  spring  and  make  a  profit  out  of 
it  in  the  growing  of  cotton/'  This  man,  fortunately,  has  a  large  body  of  very 
fine  land,  well  supplied  with  humus,  and  on  which  commercial  fertilizers  act 
very  finely;  doubtless  what  he  said  was  true  and  that  he  does  make  a  profit 
in  cotton  farming  with  heavy  doses  of  fertilizer  on  his  land.  But  it  would 
be  easy  to  demonstrate  that  the  profit  would  be  much  larger  and  the  outlay 
for  fertilizers  much  less  by  farming  instead  of  merely  planting  his  land. 
But  there  are  thousands  of  farms  in  the  South  which  have  been  so  com- 
pletely run  down  by  bad  culture  that  even  the  application  of  fertilizers 
by  a  Station  formula  gives  no  profit.  It  is  a  common  practice  among 
the  larger  cotton  farmers  to  figure  everything  by  the  mule.  The 
area  of  land  does  not  enter  into  the  calculation,  but  only  what  they 
can  clear  from  each  man  and  mule  in  the  cotton  field.  At  ten 
cents  per  pound,  a  man  and  a  mule  can  make,  on  land  yielding  half  a 
bale  per  acre,  about  $600  worth  of  cotton.  This  $600  must  pay  for  the  fer- 
tilizer used  on  the  land,  and  must  feed  the  mule  and  the  negro  for  a  year, 
while  the  same  land  probably  could  be,  in  a  little  while,  brought  to  the  pro- 
duction of  a  bale  per  acre  with  less  direct  expenditure  of  fertilizers,  is  farmed 
instead  of  being  merely  planted.  In  all  of  our  Southern  cities  the  refrig- 
erator cars  from  Chicago  arc  daily  bringing  beef  for  our  consumption,  in  a 
country  where  more  and  better  forage  can  be  grown  than  in  the  West;  and 
where  men  are  planting  thousands  of  acres  in  cotton  with  hardly  a  hoof  on 
the  land  except  the  mules  which  work  the  fields  in  summer  and  loaf  all 
winter. 

A  proper  rotation  for  a  cotton  farm  involves  the  feeding  of  stock.  The 
feeding  of  stock  requires  forage  and  grain.  The  growing  and  harvesting 
of  forage  and  grain  and  the  feeding  of  stock  in  winter,  requires  regular 
labor  from  year's  end  to  year's  end,  and  gives  steady  employment  and  a  better 
class  of  laborers  by  reason  of  the  steady  work.  It  means  cash  coming  in  at 
different  seasons,  which  enables  the  farmer  to  buy  for  cash,  and  thus  lightens 
greatly  the  expense  falling  on  the  cotton  crop.  It  makes  the  farmer  a  reader 
and  a  student,  and  in  this  way  has  its  influence  on  the  home,  for  when  people 
get  interested  in  books  they  soon  improve  in  the  home  making. 

During  the  late  depression  in  the  price  of  cotton  the  writer  was  con- 
tinually being  appealed  to  by  cotton  farmers  for  information  in  regard  to  the 


106 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

culture  of  one  crop  or  another,  which  the  writers  wanted  to  put  in  in  the 
place  of  cotton.  They  had  always  been  giving  cotton  too  large  a  place,  but 
their  only  idea  of  farming  seemed  to  be  the  "making  of  a  crop"  of  some 
kind  to  sell.  Some  wanted  to  go  into  broom  corn,  some  into  sunflowers  for 
the  oil,  some  into  hops  or  some  other  crop  about  which  they  knew  nothing, 
and  many  of  which  were  entirely  unsuited  to  the  Southern  climate,  as  the 
hop  is.  We  have  tried  earnestly  to  impress  on  the  writers  that  the  only  hope 
of  the  South  lies  in  better  farming  with  the  staple  crops  we  have,  and  an 
utter  abandonment  of  the  cotton  cropping  idea.  "But  I  cannot  afford  to  put 
my  land  in  crops  that  will  pay  me  less  money  than  I  can  get  from  the  land 
in  cotton,"  is  what  we  are  continually  being  told  by  men  whose  cotton  costs 
them  6  to  8  cents  per  pound,  when  by  better  farming  and  the  growing  of 
forage  and  feeding  of  cattle  they  could  grow  the  cotton  for  half  what  it  now 
costs  them,  and  this,  too,  with  a  more  liberal  expenditure  for  fertilizers  than 
they  now  use,  but  used  in  a  different  way. 

WHAT  IS  THE  BEST  ROTATION   FOR  COTTON? 

Bulletin  No.  43  of  the  Georgia  Station  makes  the  following  statement 
in  regard  to  the  rotation  practiced  there.  "At  the  beginning  of  the  ex- 
istence of  the  Station,  nine  years  ago,  a  regular  system  of  rotation  was  in- 
augurated, and  with  occasional  modification,  it  has  been,  continued  to  the 
present  time.  This  system  is  what  would  be  called  a  three  year  shift,  and  is 
as  follows:  First, year:  Oats,  liberally  fertilized,  followed  by  cow  peas  with 
200  pounds  of  acid  phosphate  per  acre.  The  cow  peas,  as  a  rule,  were  made 
into  hay. 

Second  year:  Cotton,  liberally  fertilized. 

Third  year :  Corn.  At  the  beginning  liberally  fertilized,  but  later,  mod- 
erately fertilized.  Cow  peas  were  sown  in  the  corn,  sometimes  in  hills  at 
second  plowing,  but  generally  broadcast  at  the  third  plowing.  Peas  gathered 
for  seed  supply.  A  part  of  the  corn  for  several  years  past  has  been  cut  down, 
stalk  and  all,  and  put  into  the  silo.  After  the  corn,  the  land  was  again  sown 
in  oats  in  October  or  early  November,  thus  commencing  a  second  round  of  the 
three  year  rotation.  The  Director  does  not  hesitate  to  say  (and  in  this 
opinion  he  is  sustained  by  the  Agriculturist),  that  the  increased  productive- 
ness of  the  farm  is  due  more  to  the  adoption  and  maintenance  of  a  regular 
system  of  rotation  of  crops,  than  to  any  one  policy  or  practice."  The  bulletin 
further  states :  "On  most  small  farms  that  are  devoted  to  cotton  and  corn  and 
minor  crops,  and  where  very  few  animals  are  kept,  there  will  not  be  more 
manure  from  this  source  than  will  be  required  by  the  kitchen  garden  and  the 


Commercial  Fertilizers  for  Maintenance  of  Fertility — 107 

truck  and  forage  patches  around  the  residence  and  barn.  For  the  outlying 
fields,  more  or  less  remote  from  the  house,  reliance  should  be  placed  on  the 
system  of  rotation  already  outlined,  in  which  small  grain  and  cow  peas  are 
leading  features,  aided  by  a  judicious  use  of  concentrate td  fertilizers.  As  the 
system  develops,  and  after  it  has  been  in  operation  a  few  years,  the  necessity 
for  these  concentrated  fertilizers  will  be  less  urgent,  a  smaller  quantity  will 
be  required,  and  increasing  profits  will  accrue." 

In  the  main  there  can  be  no  great  objection  to  the  plan  of  the  Georgia 
Station.  What  we  do  object  to,  however,  is  the  statement  that  on  small 
farms  there  will  be  proportionately  less  manure  made  than  on  a  large  one.  If 
Ihe  rotation  advised  is  followed,  there  will  be  a  considerable  amount  of  forage 
produced  in  the  shape  of  oats  straw,  corn  fodder  and  pea  vine  hay,  and, 
whether  the  farm  be  large  or  small,  this  should  be  fed  on  the  place,  to  cattle, 
and  the  result  will  be  that  there  will  be  as  much  manure  in  proportion  to  the 
area  under  cultivation  oh  the  small  farm  as  on  a  larger  one  under  the  three 
year  rotation.  A  long  experience  in  the  culture  of  Southern  lands  has 
shown  us  that  the  great  advantage  of  the  three  year  rotation  lies 
in  the  more  frequent  bringing  on  the  soil  of  a  leguminous  feed 
Crop,  and  the  practicability  of  finally  making  manure  enough  to  broadcast 
one-third  of  the  area  annually.  Dribbling  a  little  manure  around  on  the 
better  lots  about  the  barn  will  take  a  long  time  to  restore  the  fertility  of  the 
farm,  the  produce  of  which  is  being  used  only  on  a  limited  area.  The  small 
farm  is  the  place  for  the  manure  spreader  with  all  of  its  manure-spreading 
economy. 

In  practicing  a  good  three  year  rotation  with  cotton,  and  feeding  all  the 
forage  grown,  as  well  as  the  corn  and  oats,  the  cotton  farmer  can  make  live 
stock  an  important  part  of  his  profits  while  increasing  his  manure  accumu- 
lation. Another  point  of  importance  in  the  Georgia  rotation  is  the  fact 
that  every  crop  grown  is  supplied  with  commercial  fertilizers  in  large  or 
small  quantity.  At  the  usual  market  price  for  corn  we  have  never  been  able 
to  get  back  the  cost  of  a  complete  fertilizer  applied  to  this  crop.  The  corn 
field  is  the  place  for  the  manurial  accumulation  of  the  farm,  and  a  well 
arranged  three  year  rotation  will,  in  a  few  years,  enable  the  farmer  to  make 
manure  enough  for  his  com.  Growing  through  the  long  heated  season,  when 
the  nitrification  is  most  active  in  the  organic  matter,  com  can  make  a  better 
use  of  the  manure  than  any  other  crop,  while  at  the  same  time  there  will  be  a 
residue  well  incorporated  with  the  soil  that  will  carry  the  oats  through  without 
the  further  addition  of  commercial  fertilizers.  Then  with  a  more  liberal  appli- 
cation of  acid  phosphate  and  potash  to  the  oat  stubble  the  great  nitrogen- 
collecting  crop  of  the  rotation,  the  cow  pea,  will  make  a  great  crop  of  forage, 


108 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

and  leave  in  the  stubble  nitrogen  enough  to  carry  the  succeeding  cotton  crop, 
with  the  aid  of  the  seed  made  by  the  preceding  crop,  or  the  meal  exchanged 
for  the  seed.  For  a  few  years  in  the  first  start  o^  the  improvement  of  a  worn 
cotton  farm  it  may  be  necessary  to  add  some  acid  phosphate  to  the  cotton  seed 
meal ;  this,  too,  can  soon  be  dispensed  with,  and  the  only  commercial  fer- 
tilizers that  need  be  bought  through  the  whole  three  years  will  be  the  acid 
phosphate  and  potash  for  the  peas.  When  you  reach  this  point  cotton 
growing  becomes  profitable,  even  if  the  price  goes  lower  than  the  ordinary 
cropper  can  grow  it  for.  Your  well  fed  cattle  will  pay  all  the  expenses  of 
your  farming,  and  leave  the  manure  and  the  cotton  crop  as  profit.  This  is 
no  mere  theory,  for  it  is  being  done  successfully,  and  in  the  hands  of  some 
enterprising  men  the  crop  of  winter  oats  has  assumed  an  importance  from 
the  great  crops  grown  that  makes  them,  too,  an  important  money  crop.  The 
way  out  of  the  slavery  of  the  cotton  farmer  to  the  fertilizer  mixer  lies 
through  the  growing  of  forage  and  the  feeding  of  cattle,  and  the  working  of 
his  land  in  a  systematic  rotation  contrived  for  the  best  success  of  the  cotton 
crop  through  making  the  best  success  with  the  forage  crops.  A  permanent 
pasture  for  summer  is  an  important  part  of  the  improvement  of  a  cotton 
farm.  Fortunately  there  is  the  Bermuda  grass,  a  plant  admirably  suited  to 
the  needs  of  the  cotton  farmer.  It  suits  his  soil,  it  suits  his  climate,  and  it 
grows  in  perfect  defiance  of  heat,  and  will  enable  him  to  carry  through  all 
the  cattle  he  needs  for  feeding  in  the  winter. 

With  a  permanent  pasture  of  Bermuda  grass,  the  cotton  farmer  never 
needs  to  pasture  his  fields  where  his  crops  are  grown,  but  can  keep  them  at 
all  times  growing  something  either  for  sale  or  feeding.  A  profitable  and 
practicable  rotation,  then,  for  a  cotton  farm,  will  be  to  begin  with  land  that 
has  yet  to  be  improved  and  gotten  into  a  more  productive  condition. 

First  year:  Cotton,  with  a  good  dressing  of  a  complete  fertilizer  broad- 
cast, at  rate  of  400  pounds  per  acre.  In  September  sow  among  the  cotton  15 
pounds  per  acre  of  crimson  clover  and  one  bushel  of  rye.  If  the  clover  fails, 
the  rye  will  make  a  green  cover  crop  to  ward  off  waste  in  winter.  During  the 
winter  get  out  and  spread  all  the  farm  accumulation  of  manure  on  the  rye 
and  clover. 

Second  year:  Plow  under  the  rye  and  clover  with  the  manure  for  the 
corn  crop.  Turn  them  under  deeply,  and  then  work  the  crop  rapidly  and 
frequently,  but  perfectly  level  and  shallow  and  avoid  all  earthing  up  with  a 
plow.  No  turning  plow  should  ever  be  allowed  in  the  com  or  cotton  field. 
At  last  working,  sow  cow  peas  all  through  the  corn.  Gather  your  seed  from 
these  for  the  next  year's  sowing.  Cut  the  corn  and  cure  in  shocks  and  disc 
■the  peas  over  and  sow  winter  turf  oats. 


CoMTOiRCiAL  Fertilizers  for  Maintenance  of  Fertility — 109 

Third  year :  Cut  the  oats  and  at  once  plow  the  land  well  and  harrow  ii? 
300  pounds  per  acre  of  acid  phosphate  and  50  pounds  of  muriate  of  potash, 
and  after  a  rain  has  followed  the  harrowing  drill  in  one  and  a  half  bushels 
of  peas  per  acre.  When  these  are  mature,  and  the  first  pods  are  turning 
yellow,  cut  them  for  hay  and  cure  for  feed.  Disk  the  stubble  over  and  sow 
Crimson  clover  in  September  to  be  plowed  under  for  cotton  in  the  spring. 
It  will  be  well  to  sow  a  little  rye  as  a  shade  to  the  young  clover.  With  a 
good  stand  of  clover  and  rye  you  will  need  little  fertilizer  for  the  cotton 
crop  that  now  begins  the  rotation  over  again,  but  for  a  while  -it  may  be  well 
to  use  a  little  acid  phosphate  on  the  cotton.  One  of  the  best  plans  for  using 
the  cotton  seed  is  that  devised  by  a  good  farmer  in  South  Carolina.  This  is 
to  bury  the  cotton  seed  in  a  furrow  down  the  middles.  If  any  seed  sprouts 
it  can  easily  be  destroyed  in  the  cultivation  of  the  crop,  and  the  seed  will  be 
rotted  and  ready  to  feed  the  plants  when  fruiting  time  comes  and  the  roots 
are  searching  across  the  rows.  After  two  or  three  rounds  of  this  rotation 
you  will  find  that  the  only  place  where  you  will  need  any  commercial  fer- 
tilizers is  on  the  land  to  go  into  peas  after  oats.  Year  after  year  you  will 
be  getting  more  and  more  forage  to  feed  cattle  and  can  make  more  and  more 
manure,  till  finally  you  will  have  no  difficulty  in  getting  enough  to  cover  the 
corn-tend,  if  uniformly  spread  with  the  machine.  And,  better  than  all,  you 
will  have  the  cattle  to  bring  in  money  in  the  spring,  so  that  you  can  get  upon 
a  cash  basis  and  reduce  expenses  through  buying  for  cash. 

The  general  experience  at  the  Stations  in  the  cotton  belt  has  been  that  the 
use  of  commercial  fertilizers  is  of  special  value  to  the  cotton  crop  in  hastening 
its  maturity,  while  in  some  instances  the  use  of  stable  manure  had  the  effect 
of  delaying  the  maturing  of  the  crop.  The  corn  crop  on  the  farm  can  use 
the  crude  manures  from  the  stock  to  better  advantage  than  the  cotton  crop, 
and  by  the  time  the  land  comes  around  in  cotton  again,  the  manure  is  better 
assimilated  with  the  soil,  and  is  in  better  condition  to  suit  the  cotton  plant. 
In  the  continuous  planting  of  cotton  on  the  same  land  there  has  been  noticed 
a  cumulative  effect  from  the  previous  dressings  where  these  have  been  in 
liberal  amount.  In  Alabama  and  Arkansas  it  was  found  that  nitrogenous 
manures  increased  the  yield  the  second  season  without  additional  fertiliza- 
tion, but  had  lost  their  effect  by  the  third  season.  In  Alabama  the  phos- 
phatic  fertilizers  increased  the  yield  for  three  seasons  without  further 
applications,  and  in  Eastern  North  Carolina  there  seems  to  have  been  so 
much  accumulation  of  phosphoric  acid  that  acid  phosphate  no  longer  has 
any  effect  when  applied  as  a  fertilizer  to  most  of  the  lands  that  are  cultivated 
in  cotton.  In  Alabama  the  application  of  pulverized  rock  phosphate,  or  what 
is  commonly  called  "floats,"  in  which  the  chemist  finds  that  the  phosphoric 


110 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

acid  is  all  insoluble,  increased  the  yield  for  two  successive  seasons,  and  farmers 
are  gradually  finding  out  that  this  material,  when  placed  in  the  soil,  rapidly 
becomes  soluble  enough  for  plants  to  get  the  use  of  it,  and  since  it  can  be  sold 
for  half  the  price  of  the  dissolved  rock  it  will  be  well  for  farmers  to  experi- 
ment with  it,  and  see  if  the  cost  of  fertilization  cannot  be  further  decreased. 
Several  Stations  report  that  the  effect  of  kainit,  or  crude  potash  salt,  is  to 
prevent  rust  in  the  cotton,  aside  from  the  value  the  potash  may  have  as  a 
fertilizer,  but  it  also  seems  to  have  the  effect  of  retarding  the  opening  of  the 
bolls.  In  South  Carolina  it  was  found  that  the  application  of  marl  alone,  or 
in  connection  with  the  commercial  fertilizers,  is  of  no  direct  value  to  the 
cotton  crop.  But  when  marl  is  used  as  an  application  to  leguminous  crope 
in  storing  up  organic  matter  in  the  soil  for  the  cotton,  it  has  a  very  great 
indirect  value.  In  Alabama  it  was  found  that  air  slaked  lime  mixed  in  the 
drill  with  acid  phosphate  had  no  apparent  effect  on  cotton;  in  fact,  it  would 
seem  that  it  might  have  an  injurious  effect  in  making  the  phosphate 
less  soluble.  Nitrate  of  soda  has  been  profitably  applied  at  two  dressings 
between  planting  time  and  June  1st.  Better  results  have  been  had  from 
fertilizers  worked  in  shallowly  than  those  buried  deeply  for  cotton.  From 
the  various  experiments  of  the  Stations,  the  Office  of  Experiment  Stations 
reaches  the  following  general  conclusions,  in  regard  to  the  cultivation  and 
fertilization  of  the  cotton  crop,  taking  also  into  the  account  the  experience 
of  successful  cotton  growers.  It  is  evident  that  cotton  is  a  plant  that 
responds  promptly,  liberally  and  profitably  to  judicious  fertilization.  The 
practice  general  in  the  South  we  do  not  regard  as  judicious,  since  under  it 
the  productiveness  of  the  land  has  gradually  been  decreased,  until  the  soil 
is  not  in  the  best  condition  to  apply  lilberal  quantities  of  commercial  fertili- 
zers, by  reason  of  the  exhaustion  of  the  humus  supply  in  the  soil,  through 
the  continuous  planting  of  cotton  aided  by  scanty  supplies  of  fertilizers. 
But  by  judicious  fertilization  with  these  same  commercial  fertilizers  in  con- 
nection with  proper  farming,  the  maturity  of  the  crop  may  be  hastened  and 
its  period  of  growth  shortened  so  as  to  materially  increase  the  area  northward 
where  the  cotton  crop  may  be  profitably  grown.  But  this  judicious  use  of 
fertilizers  involves  the  antecedent  preparation  of  the  soil.  A  soil  deficient 
in  humus,  or  decayed  organic  matter,  is  not  only  in  a  bad  mechanical  condi- 
tion, but  is  in  a  poor  condition  to  receive  liberal  applications 
of  commercial  fertilizers,  since  it  is  more  subject  to  drought  by 
reason  of  the  absence  of  the  moisture-retaining  humus,  and  hence, 
cannot  dissolve  the  fertilizers.  Therefore,  the  higher  "tilth"  we 
get  our  lands  into,  the  heavier  application  of  fertilizers  we  can 
profitably  use.     The  culture  of  the  cow  pea  as  a  renovating  crop  is  essential 


Commercial  Fertilizers  for  Maintenance  of  Fertility — 111 

in  the  cotton  belt  to  the  restoration  of  those  new  ground  conditions  which 
all  planters  have  noticed  are  so  favorable  to  the  profitable  culture  of  cotton. 
On  lands  newly  cleared  from  the  forest  every  cotton  farmer  has  noticed  that 
the  crop  is  not  only  more  certain  without  the  fertilizers,  but  that  a  heavier 
application  of  fertilizers  can  be  more  profitably  made  than  on  an  old  field  that 
has  so  long  been  in  the  crop  that  it  has  lost  the  black  humus  that  the  new  land 
has  so  plentifuUy.  Therefore,  the  effort  of  the  farmer  should  be  towards  the 
keeping  up  of  these  soil  conditions  where  they  exist  and  the  restoration  of 
them  where  they  have  been  exhausted,  and  in  no  way  can  this  be  done  so 
economically  as  through  the  culture  of  the  ''^clover  of  the  South,''  the  cow  pea. 
Not  that  the  cotton  farmer  should  sacrifice  a  valuable  feed  crop  as  manure 
direct  to  his  land,  for  the  cutting  of  the  hay  and  the  feeding  of  it  to  stock 
is  far  more  business-like  and  profitable  than  the  burying  of  the  whole  growth 
at  once  in  the  soil.  The  roots  and  stubble  contain  a  large  amount  of  the 
manurial  value,  and  by  saving  the  manure  carefully  the  land  loses  little  of 
the  tops,  while  feeding  can  be  made  an  important  part  of  the  farm  profits. 
Barnyard  and  stable  manures  are  more  profitable  to  the  cotton  planter,  as  a 
means  for  the  bulking  up  of  his  soil  with  organic  matter,  and  for  the  forma- 
tion of  the  important  humus,  than  as  manures  direct  to  the  crop ;  for  we  have 
seen  that  crude  manures  may  tend  to  delay  the  ripening  of  the  crop.  Drib- 
bling a  little  manure  or  compost  of  manure  in  the  row  is  not  the  best  way  to 
get  a  stand  of  cotton,  and  is  far  from  being  the  best  way  to  improve  the  soil. 
All  home-made  manures,  and  all  woods-mold  collected,  should  be  spread 
broadcast  over  the  whole  soil.  As  we  have  said,  the  place  for  these  crude 
manures  is  on  the  corn  crop  following  the  cotton  and  preceding  the  oats  or 
wheat,  so  that  by  the  time  the  field  comes  around  again  in  cotton,  in  a  three- 
year  rotation,  the  remaining  manure  has  been  reduced  to  a  state  of  humus 
and  aids  the  commercial  fertilizer  applied  to  the  cotton  crop  in  doing  its 
work.  The  editor  from  whose  work  we  glean  these  conclusions,  says  that 
cotton  may  be  wisely  assigned  a  place  in  a  judicious  rotation,  and  suggests 
a  rotation  of  small  grain,  followed  by  corn  with  peas,  and  then  cotton;  and 
adds  that  each  crop  should  be  properly  fertilized.  To  this  rotation  we  see 
the  objection  that  there  are  no  peas  for  mowing  and  making  hay  for  stock, 
and  no  mention  of  making  manure.  Now,  as  the  feeding  of  live  stock  is  at 
the  very  foundation  of  all  rational  farm  improvement,  in  the  cotton  as  well 
as  the  corn  field,  the  rotation  that  does  not  provide  a  forage 
crop  other  than  com  is'  defective.  Then,  too,  while  an  application 
of  fertilizer  to  every  crop  grown  may  produce  an  increase  of  the  crop,  it  is 
not  always  profitable  farming.  One  of  the  chief  values  of  a  good  rotation, 
to  my  mind,  is  to  en«tble  the  farmer  to  increase  the  productiveness  of  his 


112 — Crop  GtRowing  and  Crop  Feeding 

soil,  while  gradually  using  less  of  the  purchased  fertilizer,  until  he  needs  to 
buy  none  but  phosphoric  acid,  and  perhaps  potash,  and  these  for  the  pea  crop 
alone;  for  by  a  proper  rotation  and  the  production  of  a  plentiful  supply  of 
forage  crops,  that  will  go  to  make  together  a  balanced  ration  for  cattle,  he 
can  supply  his  soil  all  the  nitrogen  needed;  and  can  accumulate  fertility 
in  the  land  till  his  money  crop  is  produced  in  its  highest  excellence,  without 
any  direct  application  of  commercial  fertilizer.  The  investigations  of  the 
Stations  in  the  study  of  the  manurial  requirements  of  the  various  crops,  have 
had  the  effect  of  getting  farmers  to  think  that  for  every  crop  planted  they 
must  have  a  special  fertilizer.  Good  farming  with  cotton  or  any  other  crop 
does  not  mean  merely  the  production  of  large  crops ;  but  in  the  production  of 
crops  at  the  lowest  possible  expense,  while  increasing  the  fertility  of  the  soil. 
It  is  not  good  farming  to  teach  farmers  that  they  need  make  an  application 
of  fertilizer  to  every  crop  planted,  and  we  will  never  get  them  to  see  the  value 
of  a  rotation,  till  we  show  that  a  rotation  can  do  what  we  have  said  is  good 
farming.  One  of  the  labor-wasting  practices  long  in  vogue  among  cotton 
farmers  in  the  South,  is  what  is  called  composting.  Having  but  little 
manure  from  the  few  cattle  kept,  and  that  of  poor  quality  from  the  poor  and 
scant  feed,  they  go  to  work  to  haul  a  lot  of  soil  from  woods  and  fence  rows 
and  mix  with  the  manure,  and  turn  and  chop  it  down  with  the  notion  that 
they  are  making  the  whole  good  manure.  And  then  this  laboriously  made 
pile  of  dirt,  is  dribbled  in  a  parsimonious  way,  in  the  furrows  under  the 
cotton ;  the  only  use  it  has  being  to  enable  the  plant  to  use  better  the  fertilizer 
they  add  to  it.  It  takes  our  farmers  a  long  time  to  realize  that  it  is  far 
cheaper  to  grow  the  organic  matter  all  over  the  soil,  ready  spread,  than  to 
pile  and  turn  it  and  haul  to  the  field;  and  that  far  more  of  it  can  be  grown 
there  than  can  be  hauled  there  by  any  one.  The  rotation  we  prefer  for  a 
three-year  rotation  with  cotton  has  already  been  given,  and  the  experience  of 
those  who  have  adopted  it  has  abundantly  proved  its  correctness.  While  in 
the  first  stages  of  the  building  up  of  a  poor  piece  of  cotton  land,  it  may  be 
advisable  to  apply  some  fertilizer  to  each  crop  planted,  the  farmer  who 
strictly  follows  the  three-year  rotation  we  have  given,  will  soon  find  that  all 
the  commercial  fertilizer  he  needs  to  buy  will  be  acid  phosphate  and  potash 
for  the  peas,  and  the  peas  will  do  all  the  rest,  if  they  are  properly  fed  to 
stock;  while,  at  the  same  time,  they  are  feeding  the  soil  direct.  Our  Editor 
of  the  Office  of  Experiment  Stations  further  says,  that,  on  the  great  majority 
of  the  soils  of  the  Cotton  States  it  is  advisable  to  use  as  a  concentrated  fertili- 
zer, a  complete  manure;  that  is  one  containing  soluble  phosphoric  acid, 
available  phosphoric  acid  and  available  nitrogen,  rather  than  a  manure 
containing  only  one  or  two  of  these  ingredients.     This  may  be  true  if  the 


Commercial  Fertilizers  for  Maintenance  of  Fertility — 113 

farmer  is  to  continue  to  grow  cotton  continuously  without  rotation,  but  it 
is  not  true  for  the  farmer  who  feeds  stock  and  grows  forage  to  feed  them 
with  from  the  cow  pea  and  the  corn  plant.  In  fact,  what  a  farmer  should 
use  will  depend  on  the  nature  of  his  soil,  for,  as  we  have  already  seen,  there 
is  a  considerable  district  in  Eastern  North  Carolina  where  phosphoric  acid 
is  not  needed  in  the  soil,  and  there  are  other  districts  where  potash  is  needless, 
while  in  all  the  cotton  belt  the  nitrogen  needed  can  be  had  in  larger  quantity 
and  more  cheaply  in  the  cow  pea  than  in  a  commercial  fertilizer. 
While  analysis  may  show  that  the  cotton  plant  needs  a  complete  fertilizer, 
this  does  not  show  that  we  need  buy  all  the  constituents  of  such  a  fertilizer, 
for  all  our  soils  and  all  conditions  of  culture.  The  editor  well  adds, 
afterwards,  that  the  nitrogen  may  be  omitted  where  it  is  supplied  through 
animal  manures,  or  what  he  in  the  language  of  the  press  calls  green  manuring. 
And  right  here  I  would  repeat  what  I  have  often  said,  that  what  is  called 
in  Northern  latitudes  "green  manuring,'^  is  not  applicable  to  Southern  con- 
ditions. In  the  cooler  climate  of  the  North  and  the  heavy  clay  of  the 
glacial  drift,  it  may  be  practicable  to  plow  under  green  crops;  in  the  sandy 
soil  and  warm  climate  of  the  cotton  belt,  such  a  practice  would  be  simply 
suicidal  to  the  interests  of  the  cotton  farmer,  for  he  would  not  only  sour  his 
soil,  but  he  would  cut  short  the  work  the  legumes  are  doing  for  him  before 
they  had  fairly  completed  it.  Hence,  for  the  South  at  least,  we  should  drop 
entirely  the  misleading  phrase  "green  manuring,"  since  no  such  practice  is 
applicable  to  Southern  conditions.  But  while  green  manuring  cannot  be 
practiced  in  the  South  as  it  is  in  the  North,  there  is  an  even  greater  need  for 
the  growing  of  the  green  manure  crops,  for  the  purpose  of  getting  forage  and 
making  manure,  and  for  getting  the  nitrogen  collecting  work  of  the  legumes 
completely  done.  While  soluble  phosphates,  like  acid  phosphate,  are  best 
for  their  immediate  effect  on  the  cotton  crop,  there  seems  to  be  no  doubt  that 
the  insoluble  floats  may  be  profitably  used  after  a  while  in  the  promotion 
of  the  growth  of  the  pea  crop,  and  to  accumulate  there  for  the  use  of  the 
cotton  crop,  that  should  follow  the  peas.  Kainit,  muriate  of  potash  and 
sulphate  of  potash  present  the  potash  to  the  cotton  plant  as  fertilizer  in  an 
equal  manner,  and  the  only  difference  is  in  the  cost.  Kainit,  while  of  special 
value  aside  from  its  use  as  a  fertilizer,  in  that  it  has  a  tendency  to  prevent 
blight,  is,  in  most  places,  the  most  costly  form,  since  it  has  but  12  per  cent, 
of  potash,  and  its  use  involves  the  freighting  of  a  large  amount  of  useless 
material ;  while  the  muriate  has  50  per  cent,  of  potash  and  a  smaller  quantity 
need  be  freighted  to  get  what  potash  we  want.  As  a  nitrogenous  manure  for 
cotton,  the  cotton  farmer  can  usually  get  all  that  he  needs  by  exchanging 
his  cotton  seed  at  the  oil  mill  for  meal  and  hulls,  and  while  he  may  use,  if 


114 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

he  chooses,  a  little  nitrate  of  soda  as  a  starter  for  the  cotton,  the  organic 
nitrogen  will  usually  be  the  best  form  for  the  sustenance  of  the  crop  during 
the  season.  Therefore,  it  is  more  than  ever  apparent  that  the  organic  nitro- 
gen from  the  pea  roots  is  the  best  form  of  nitrogen  we  can  get.  Much  work 
has  been  done  by  the  Stations  in  the  Cotton  States  in  the  study  of  the  propor- 
tions in  which  the  various  constituents  of  a  complete  fertilizer  should  be 
used.  In  Georgia  they  claim  that  the  proportion  should  be  nitrogen  1, 
potash  1,  phosphoric  acid  3i/^.  In  South  Carolina,  nitrogen  1,  potash  %, 
phosphoric  acid  2^4: ;  while  in  ISTorth  Carolina,  where  in  a  large  part  of  the 
cotton  belt  phosphoric  acid  is  not  needed,  the  law  requires  that  a  complete 
fertilizer  allowed  to  be  sold  must  not  contain  less  than  8  per  ceiit.  of  phos- 
phoric acid.  This  law  is  about  to  be  changed  now,  however.  Quoting 
further  from  the  Office  of  Experiment  Stations  we  find  it  stated  that  the 
amount  of  concentrated  fertilizer  which  may  be  profitably  used  per  acre  on 
the  cotton  crop,  varies  widely  with  the  nature  and  condition  of  the  soil,  the 
seasons  and  other  circumstances.  For  an  average  soil  in  fairly  good  con- 
dition, perhaps  the  maximum  amounts  indicated  in  Georgia — nitrogen,  20 
pounds,  potash,  20  pounds,  phosphoric  acid,  70  pounds,  or  South  Carolina 
— ^nitrogen,  20  pounds,  potash,  15  pounds,  phosphoric  acid,  50  pounds,  or 
an  approximate  mean  between  the  two,  would  be  the  maximum  limit  of  the 
profitable  application.  This  would  mean  the  application  of  over  800  pounds 
per  acre  of  an  average  cotton  fertilizer,  an  amount  which,  if  applied  to  the 
worn  uplands  of  the  cotton  country,  would  do  more  harm  than  good,  but 
which  can  be  used  only  on  soils  of  a  moist  nature  and  well  supplied  with 
humus.  While  700  to  800  pounds  of  a  complete  fertilizer  may  be  used  on 
such  lands,  the  larger  part  of  the  old  lands  of  the  upland  country,  in  the 
Cotton  States,  could  not  safely  apply  more  than  half  that  quantity,  until 
through  good  farming  and  the  accumulation  of  organic  matter  in  the  soil 
they  have  prepared  the  land  to  receive  such  a  liberal  dressing.  Quoting  from 
the  same  source  we  find  it  stated  that  the  concentrated  fertilizer  should  be 
applied  in  the  drill  and  not  broadcast,  at  a  depth  of  not  more  than  three 
inches,  and  well  mixed  with  the  soil.  To  the  first  part  of  this  statement 
we  have  a  serious  objection,  and  there  is  every  reason  why  the  fertilizer 
should  be  applied  not  alone  in  the  drill  but  broadcast.  Cotton  spreads  its 
roots  far  and  wide,  and  as  the  feeding  roots'  hairs  are  out  near  the  tips  of 
the  roots  they  soon  get  away  from  the  little  that  is  directly  under  them  and 
are  foraging  in  a  poor  soil,  so  that  at  the  most. critical  time  of  the  crop,  the 
fruiting  time,  the  plants  have  less  food  at  their  command  than  at  any  other 
time.  Then,  too,  if  as  large  an  application  as  700  to  800  pounds  per  acre 
of  a  complete  fertilizer  is  used,  the  application  in  the  drill  alone  of  that 


Commercial  Fertilizers  for  Maintenance  of  Fertility— 115 

amount  would  probably  be  disastrous  to  the  getting  of  a  stand  of  cotton,  for 
it  would  burn  the  roots  up.  Then,  further,  it  is  stated  that  all  things  con- 
sidered, it  is  best  to  make  the  application  all  at  one  time,  that  where  the  land 
is  in  superior  condition  and  a  large  application  is  used  it  is  probably  profit- 
able to  apply  half  at  planting  and  half  at  the  second  plowing.  Then  this 
second  half  would  certainly  not  be  in  the  drill,  but  would  be  just  where  we 
would  have  put  it  in  the  beginning,  in  the  middles  of  the  rows. 

We  have  quoted  thus  largely  from  a  review  of  the  work  of  the  Experi- 
ment Stations  in  the  Cotton  States,  to  show  that  the  experimenters  themselves 
have  not  been  able  to  get  away  from  the'  old  traditions  of  the  cotton  field. 
They  have  done  a  great  deal  of  work  in  determining  the  food  requirements  of 
the  cotton  crop,  but  are  as  badly  in  the  ruts  in  regard  to  the  culture  of  the 
crop  as  the  planters  themselves.  All  the  old  practice  of  fertilizing  in  the 
furrow  and  making  a  bed  of  soil  above  it,  plowing  first,  second  or  third  times, 
are  all  relics  of  the  old  ruts  from  which  it  is  time  cotton  growers  were  get- 
ting out.  Fertilizing  in  the  furrow  is  not  the  way  to  bring  up  the  pro- 
ductiveness of  the  land  for  any  crop.  Deep  preparation  of  the 
soil,  planting  on  the  flat  surface,  and  then  shallow  and  perfectly 
flat  culture'  should  be  the  rule.  There  is  no  more  need  for  a  plow 
in  the  cotton  field  after  the  crop  is  planted  than  there  is  in  a  corn  field,  and 
the  methods  that  are  best  for  the  one  are  of  equal  advantage  for  the  other. 
Cotton  was  grown  here  the  past  season  on  well  prepared  land  perfectly  fiat. 
It  was  cultivated  with  a  smoothing  harrow  and  a  weeder  till  over  six  inches 
high  and  then  with  a  small  tooth  cultivator  the  rest  of  the  season,  and  never 
hilled  in  the  slightest  degree ;  and  that  cotton  went  through  a  season  of  un- 
precedented drought  and  heat  better  than  any  plowed  and  hilled  cotton 
around  it.  Then,  too,  the  everlasting  directions  that  have  been  given  the 
farmers  about  the  particular  amount  and  kind  of  fertilizer  that  should  be 
used  have  confused  them  to  such  an  extent  that  they  think  that  all  they  need 
is  a  formula  for  the  preparation  of  a  fertilizer.  There  is  much  need  of  ener- 
getic work  on  the  part  of  the  Stations  in  the  Cotton  States  to  show  the 
farmers  the  best  methods  of  improving  their  soil  for  the  production  of  the 
cotton  crop,  and  the  means  through  which  they  may  be  relieved  from  the 
necessity  of  buying  a  complete  fertilizer  for  every  crop  they  plant.  Good 
farming  is  needed  more  in  the  Cotton  States  than  any  more  knowledge  re- 
garding fertilizers,  for  those  who  get  to  doing  good  farming  will  naturally 
use  what  fertilizers  they  need  in  a  more  liberal  manner.  Then  again,  the 
experiments  in  fertilizers  with  any  crop  on  the  soil  of  the  Experiment  Station, 
at  one  point  in  a  State  as  large  as  Georgia  or  Xorth  Carolina,  can  hardly 
be  of  much  use  to  a  large  part  of  the  farmers  in  those  States,  who  are  growing 


116 — Crop  Geo  wing  and  Crop  Feeding 

cotton  on  a  different  soil,  and  to  give  to  farmers  the  proportions  in  which 
they  should  mix  their  fertilizers  to  make  a  complete  cotton  fertilizer  is  pure 
quackery,  and  should  not  be  indulged  in  by  men  engaged  in  scientific  investi- 
gation. The  methods  of  culture  need  more  improvement  than  the  fertiliza- 
tion of  the  crop,  for  these  are  the  same  they  were  a  hundred  years  ago,  and 
the  everlasting  fertilizer  investigations  at  the  Stations  are  only  keeping  up 
the  old  practices.  The  Southern  cotton  grower  needs  to  be  taught  more 
about  efonomical  methods  in  farming  than  he  does  about  mere  application 
of  fertilizers,  and  he  needs  to  be  taught  the  most  economical,  and  at  the  same 
time  most  liberal,  way  to  use  these  fertilizers,  in  the  building  up  of  his  soil 
rather  than  in  the  squeezing  out  of  a  little  more  sale  crop. 

CURING  THE  PEA  VINE  HAY. 

In  farming  for  cotton  in  this  way,  the  pea  vine  hay  is  an  important  item. 
There  has  long  been  a  notion  that  the  vines  are  hard  to  cure.  We  have 
proved  year  after  year  that  there  is  no  hay  more  easily  cured,  and  none 
better  for  any  stock  kept  on  the  farm,  from  the  pig  to  the  horse.  The 
methods  in  common  use  heretofore  in  the  South  have  usually  resulted  in  the 
loss  of  the  leaves,  the  best  part  of  the  hay,  and  in  the  production  of  a  mass  of 
hard  sticks,  instead  of  the  hay  that  can  be  made.  We  have  time  and  again 
given  our  method  of  managing  the  hay  crop.  It  is  hard  to  give  directions 
that  will  fit  all  conditions  of  the  plant,  and  the  weather.  Peas  that  have 
grown  rankly  on  fertile  soil  will  make  great,  thick  stems  that  are  more  slow 
to  cure,  and  in  such  case  the  sowing  should  be  made  thicker  so  that  the 
stems  will  not  get  so  stout.  Ordinarily  one  bushel  of  seed  per  acre  is  enough, 
but  on  strong  land,  where  they  are  apt  to  grow  too  rank,  the  seeding  of  one 
and  a  half  bushels  per  acre  will  make  a  finer  hay. 

When  the  first  pods  are  turning  yellow,  but  none  dry,  cut  the  hay  with  a 
mower  with  the  track  marker  off.  If  the  weather  is  bright  and  warm,  let 
them  lie  for  24  hours  and  then  rake  into  windrows.  Next  day  turn  the  wind- 
rows in  the  morning  and  dry  them  off.  If  the  weather  is  still  hot,  the  hay 
may  get  dry  enough  to  haul  in  that  afternoon.  The  test  as  to  its  dryness 
is  to  take  a  handful  and  give  it  a  hard  twist.  If  you  can  see  no  sap  run 
to  the  twist  it  will  do  to  go  in  the  barn,  provided  there  is  no  external  moisture 
on  it.  Store  in  as  large  a  mass  as  possible,  and  the  tighter  the  barn  the 
better,  but  it  will  cure  in  a  rather  open  barn.  While  curing  in  the  barn  do 
not  disturb  it  on  any  account,  as  you  will  cause  it  to  mold  if  you  let  the  air 
into  it  while  hot.  Let  it  strictly  alone  and  it  will  cure  all  right,  will  be  per- 
fectly green  in  color  and  sweet  for  the  stock.     Now  this  is  no  theory,  for  we 


Commercial  Fertilizers  for  Maintenance  of  Fertility — 117 

do  it  every  year  without  a  failure,  and  yet  we  have  had  farmers  write  that 
their  hay  molded.  I  suppose  it  requires  some  judgment  and  experience, 
but  I  have  tried  to  give  the  method  that  has  been  a  success  with  me,  and 
can  see  no  reason  why  it  should  not  be  a  success  anywhere.  If  rain  falls  on 
the  hay  in  the  field,  spread  the  windrows  and  dry  off  well  before  housing. 
Rain  will  do  little  damage,  far  less  than  it  would  to  clover  hay,  but  it  will 
darken  it  and  should  be  avoided  if  possible.  Once  catch  on  to  the  right  way 
and  you  will  have  no  difficulty  in  making  the  finest  hay  in  the  world. 
Farming  for  cotton  without  the  cow  pea,  the  clover  of  the  South,  will  always, 
on  our  worn  uplands,  be  a  losing  business. 

resting  the  land. 

There  has  long  been  a  practice  in  the  cotton  country  of  "resting"  the 
land,  by  allowing  it  to  grow  up  in  weeds  and  grass  each  alternate  year. 
Feeling  that  constant  annual  cropping  in  cotton  was  bad,  the  farmers  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  soil  was  "tired,"  and  needed  a  rest.  Of  course  the 
accumulation  of  organic  matter  through  the  idle  season  added  a  little  to 
the  land,  and  the  resting  was  better  than  the  constant  culture  without 
systematic  rotation.  But  intelligent  farmers  all  over  the  South  are  rapidly 
learning  that  the  best  way  to  rest  land  is  to  keep  it  at  work  growing  some- 
thing of  value  between  the  sale  crops;  something  that  will  help  recuperate 
the  land  better  than  a  crop  of  weeds,  and  the  wise  farmer  now  keeps  all  land, 
vacant  of  crops  in  Summer,  covered  with  peas. 

ANOTHER  COTTON  ROTATION. 

We  have  given  what  we  consider  the  best  rotation  for  a  large  part  of  the 
coast  country  of  the  South.  But  there  is  a  large  section  of  the  upland  red 
clay  country  where  cotton  is  still  the  money  crop,  and  where  wheat  flourishes 
well.  There  the  same  three  year  rotation  can  be  made  a  success  by  putting 
wheat  in  the  place  of  winter  oats.  But  where  both  crops  are  wanted,  the 
rotation  can  be  extended  to  four  years  and  another  crop  of  pea  hay  gotten 
in.  In  this  case  the  peas  after  oats  will  be  followed  by  wheat,  and  this  again 
by  peas  fertilized  with  potash  and  acid  phosphate,  preparatory  to  the  crop 
of  cotton.  One  of  the  chief  ideas  in  a  rotation  is  to  keep  the  land  covered 
as  much  as  possible  by  growing  crops.  Our  Southern  soils  have  lost 
fertility  as  much  by  lying  bare  in  the  winter  as  by  the  summer  cropping. 
iNTever  let  the  land  lie  all  winter  without  some  green  cover  crop.  This  will 
not  only  add  humus-making  material  to  the  soil,  but  it  has  been  found  that 


118 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

where  the  land  is  covered  with  green  plants  in  winter  there  is  little  if  any 
loss  of  nitrogen,  but  where  it  lies  bare  there  is  a  great  leaching  of  nitrates. 
A  cover  crop  is  of  far  more  importance  in  the  South  than  in  the  North.  Here 
we  have  more  rain  than  hard  freezing,  and  the  soluble  nitrates  are  rapidly 
washed  out  of  the  bare  soil.  What  we  would  especially  impress  on  the 
cotton  farmer  is  the  fact  that  thorough  preparation  of  the  soil,  clean,  flat 
culture  and  a  good  rotation,  are  far  more  important  to  success  than  the 
kind  and  amount  of  fertilizers  he  may  apply  to  the  crop.  I  would  like  to 
help  the  Southern  farmer  out  of  the  slavish  dependence  on  fertilizers,  merely 
for  the  purpose  of  getting  a  little  more  out  of  the  soil  to  sell,  and  to  show 
him  that  the  true  place  for  the  plant  food  in  the  fertilizer  is  where  it  will  en- 
courage the  crops  that  feed  his  stock,  and  through  them  feed  his  farm.  Used 
in  this  way  you  may  use  the  fertilizers  liberally,  and  in  no  other  way  do  they 
so  well  supplement  the  home-made  supply  of  manure.  We  hear  a  good  deal 
about  making  the  manure  go  as  far  as  it  will  and  then  supplement  it  with 
fertilizers,  but  the  true  way  to  supplement  the  manure  is  to  use  the  fertilizers 
for  the  manure-making  crop.  The  phosphoric  acid  and  the  potash  are  then 
retained  on  the  farm  and  their  use  enables  you  to  get  a  far  greater  supply 
of  the  costly  nitrogen. 

A  very  intelligent  South  Carolina  gentleman  recently  wrote  to  me :  "You 
are  continually  urging  our  farmers  to  grow  more  peas  and  to  cure  them  for 
cattle,  but  you  overlook  the  fact  that  they  have  not  the  cattle  to  feed  them  to, 
and  they  have  not  the  fences  to  enclose  the  cattle  ;^'  and  he  might  have  added 
that  in  their  single  cropping  they  have  gotten  so  dead  poor  that  they  cannot 
buy  the  stock  nor  build  the  fences  they  need.  But  even  to  these  men  the  pea 
will  bring  help  if  not  utilized  as  it  should  be,  for  we  must  never  lose  sight  of 
the  fact  that  the  great  value  of  the  pea  in  the  South  and  of  clover  in  the 
North,  lies  in  the  accumulation  and  maintenance  of  humus  in  the  soil,  and 
that  the  greatest  value  of  humus,  aside  from  its  furnishing  some  nitrogen, 
lies  in  its  making  the  soil  more  retentive  of  moisture,  and  thus  enabling  the 
farmer  to  use  commercial  fertilizers  more  profitably.  The  most  successful 
cotton  farmers  we  know  are  the  men  who  are  growing  cotton  on  the  level 
black  lands  of  Eastern  North  Carolina.  These  men  are  able  to  use  an 
amount  of  fertilizer  per  acre  that  would  be  destructive  to  the  cotton  farm 
on  the  dry  uplands.  They  apply  from  600  to  800  pounds  per  acre  of  a 
complete  fertilizer,  and  claim  that  they  make  it  pay.  They  certainly  grow 
fine  crops.  They  are  able  to  use  this  amount  of  fertilizer  because  of  the 
superior  capacity  of  their  soil,  which  is  well  supplied  with  humus,  for  the 
retention  of  moisture  for  the  solution  of  the  fertilizers  applied.  Hence  the 
plants  get  the  use  of  it  in  the  best  manner.     The  single  cropper  on  the 


Commercial  Fertilizers  for  Maintenance  of  Fertility — 119 

uplands  could  not  grow  the  crop  the  coast  farmer  does  with  any  such  appli- 
cation. The  chances  are  that  he  would  bum  his  crop  instead  of  benefiting  it. 
This  is  because  his  soil  has  lost  its  humus  and  lacks  the  capacity  for  the 
retention  of  moisture  which  the  low  farm  has.  Here,  then,  lies  the  secret 
of  the  improvement  of  the  upland  farm;  the  growing  of  the  pea  purely 
for  the  benefit  of  the  soil,  even  if  not  fed,  as  it  should  be,  to  stock,  for  through 
its  agency  he  not  only  gets  added  fertility  from  the  air  but  added  capacity 
for  using  increased  applications  of  fertilizers;  for  it  is  a  fact  that  the  use  of 
fertilizers  is  more  profitable  on  a  fertile  farm  than  on  a  dead  poor  one.  The 
past  hot  and  dry  summer  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable  illustrations  of  the 
truth  of  this  we  have  ever  seen.  All  over  the  State  on  the  thin  and  dry  lands 
the  crop  was  remarkably  short,  and  the  fertilizers  applied  were  almost  entirely 
wasted  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  the  plants  could  not  get  them  in  the  dry  soil. 
But  here  and  there  were  men  who  have  been  practicing  pea  culture  for  the 
benefit  of  their  land,  and  have  thus  increased  its  moisture  retaining  character, 
who  made  a  good  crop  and  got  the  benefit  of  the  fertilizers  they  applied  to  the 
crop.  It  is  evident,  then,  that  even  where  the  cotton  farmer  is  not  wise 
enough,  or  is  not  able  to  feed  stock,  the  peas  are  still  the  best  means  he  can 
employ  for  the  improvement  of  his  crops  and  the  maintenance  of  the  pro- 
ductivity of  his  soil. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

WHERE  WINTER  WHEAT  IS  THE  MONEY  CROP, 

A  study  of  the  manurial  requirements  of  the  wheat  crop,  at  more  than 
one  Station,  have  shown  that  potash  applied  alone  to  the  crop,  has,  on  a 
typical  wheat  soil,  hardly  any  appreciable  effect.  At  the  Virginia  Station  it 
was  found  that  nitrogen  gave  some  increase  of  yield,  but  not  enough  to  pay 
the  cost  of  the  application.  That  potash  and  nitrogen  applied  together  gave 
no  better  results  than  when  applied  separately.  Their  combination  was  in- 
ferior to  the  results  obtained  from  a  separate  application  of  phosphoric  acid. 
Phosphoric  acid  doubled  (or  more  than  doubled)  the  yield  of  straw  and 
grain  every  year,  and  gave  profitable  returns.  In  combination  with  either 
potash  or  nitrogen  it  was  unmistakably  effective.  It  gave  better  results  in 
combination  with  nitrogen  than  with  potash.  These  experiments  were  made 
on  a  fertile  limestone-valley  soil.  The  Delaware  Station  found  that  the 
combination  of  phosphoric  acid  and  potash  was  most  effective  on  their  soil. 
Many  years  ago  the  farmers  in  the  upper  counties  of  Maryland  and  Delaware, 
on  the  Peninsula,  found  that  on  their  soil  they  got  as  good  returns  in  the 
wheat  crop,  from  the  simple  application  of  acid  phosphate,  as  from  the  use 
of  a  complete  fertilizer,  when  they  used  a  short  three  year  rotation.  For 
many  years,  in  the  finest  wheat  growing  section  of  Maryland  and  Delaware, 
hardly  any  fertilizer  except  acid  phosphate,  has  been  used  by  the  best  wheat 
farmers.  The  Delaware  Station  has  tried  to  show  them  that  a  small  addition 
of  potash  would  be  an  advantage  on  their  soil.  But  few  have  been  induced 
to  change  their  practice.  An  old  and  intelligent  farmer  of  Queen  Anne 
county,  Maryland,  recently  wrote  to  me  that  he  had  used  no  other  fertilizer 
than  simple  acid  phosphate,  for  twenty  or  more  years,  and  that  with  his  rota- 

(120) 


Where  Winter  Wheat  is  the  Money  Crop — 121 

tion  the  wheat  crop  had  steadily  improved,  and  he  said  that  now  his  last  crop 
was  40  bushels  per  acre.  I  have  seen,  the  present  Summer,  lands  in  Mary- 
land on  which  50  bushels  of  wheat  per  acre  were  grown  the  present  season, 
where  no  nitrogen  has  been  bought  for  many  years. 

The  wheat  farmers  of  Maryland  have  learned  that  they  can  get  all  the 
nitrogen  they  need  without  buying  it  in  the  form  of  a  commercial  fertilizer. 
And  this  is  a  lesson  for  wheat  farmers  in  all  parts  of  the  country  where  winter 
wheat  is  grown.  The  important  thing  to  the  wheat  grower  is,  while  getting 
a  fair  growth  of  straw  to  avoid  an  excessive  growth,  but  at  the  same  time  a 
full  crop  of  grain.  An  excess  of  nitrogen  tends  to  an  excessive  straw  growth 
and  a  consequent  weakness  and  liability  to  lodge. 

While  all  the  studies  of  the  manurial  requirements  of  the  wheat  crop 
show  that  the  greatest  yield  is  where  there  is  applied  a  complete  fertilizer, 
with  a  due  proportion  of  phosphoric  acid  and  nitrogen  and  potash,  it  by  no 
means  follows  that  it  is  necessary  to  buy  all  of  these  in  a  fertilizer.  We 
should  also  bear  in  mind  the  fact,  that  on  a  soil  where  legumes  have  not  been 
regularly  grown  in  a  rotation,  some  years  must  elapse  before  the  nitrogen  col- 
lecting crop  will  gather  more  than  is  needed  by  the  immediately  succeeding 
crop,  unless  further  addition  of  nitrifying  organic  matter  is,  in  the  mean 
time,  added  to  the  soil.  Hence  a  short  rotation  again  comes  in  as  the  best 
under  most  conditions. 

ROTATIONS  for  THE  WINTER  WHEAT  CROP- 

For  many  years,  and  long  before  the  use  of  commercial  fertilizers  became 
general,  the  best  farmers  of  the  Middle  Atlantic  States,  whose  money  crop  is 
wheat  with  stock  feeding,  practiced  a  rotation  in  which  the  land  was  seeded 
to  clover  and  grass  with  the  wheat,  mowed  for  several  years  and  then 
pastured,  and  finally  the  sod  plowed  for  corn,  which  was  followed  by  oats  the 
following  Spring  and  the  oats  stubble  fallowed  and  prepared  for  wheat  again. 
Keeping  a  large  number  of  cattle  and  raising  a  goodly  quantity  of  manure, 
these  farmers  managed  to  keep  their  lands  to  a  fair  state  of  productiveness, 
with  a  long  rotation,  on  farms  divided  up  into  very  small  fields  with  a  vast 
amount  of  needless  fencing.  This  practice  has  since  gradually  given  way  to 
a  four  year  rotation,  with  clover  standing  but  one  year,  and  the  land  again 
returned  to  corn.  The  fault  of  this  rotation  is  that  the  important  money 
crop,  the  wheat,  comes  on  the  oats  stubble,  and  nearly  two  years  after  the 
clover  has  been  plowed  under,  hence  does  not  get  the  best  use  of  the  clover. 
The  Delaware  Station  proposes  to  remedy  this  by  introducing  there  the  early 
varieties  of  the  Southern  cow  pea,  after  the  oats  are  cut,  as  a  preparatory 


1 22 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

crop  for  the  wheat.  In  sections  like  Delaware,  where  winter  oats  can  be  suc- 
cessfully grown,  this  plan  will  probably  be  a  success ;  as  the  winter  oats  should 
there  come  off  the  first  of  July  or  earlier,  and  give  plenty  of  time  to  make 
a  crop  of  peas,  from  the  varieties,  like  the  Warren  Extra  Early,  which  will 
make  a  matured  crop  in  60  days  from  the  sowing.  The  rotation  would  then 
be,  wheat,  with  a  good  application  of  acid  phosphate  and  seeded  to  clover. 
Clover  mown  twice,  or  once  and  pastured.  Home-made  manure  hauled  out 
on  the  clover  sod  during  the  winter  and  all  plowed  under  in  the  spring  for 
corn.  Oats  sown  in  September  and  followed  by  peas  cut  for  hay,  and  stubble 
prepared  for  wheat  again,  with  acid  phosphate.  This  will  give  two 
nitrogenous  forage  crops  every  year  and  largely  increase  the  feeding  capacity 
of  the  farm. 

In  other  sections,  where  the  oats  crop  is  of  less  importance,  great  success 
has  attended  the  use  of  a  three  year  rotation  of  corn,  wheat  and  clover,  the 
only  fertilizer  used  being  acid  phosphate  on  the  wheat,  and  an  occasional 
dressing  of  lime  on  the  sod  for  corn.  It  may  be  argued  that  the  corn  stubble 
is  not  the  most  favorable  place  for  the  wheat,  and  under  former  conditions 
it  was  not.  But  where  the  farm  is  stocked  to  its  full  capacity  for  feeding 
cattle,  and  a  large  amount  of  manure  is  made  and  applied  broadcast  to  the 
corn  crop,  the  corn  stubble,  with  the  help  of  acid  phosphate,  is  not  an  unde- 
sirable place  for  the  wheat  crop ;  as  is  evidenced  by  the  regular  increase  in  the 
wheat  crop  where  this  rotation  has  been  practiced.  As  in  the  three  year  rota- 
tion with  cotton,,  this  can  be  best  carried  out  with  the  aid  of  a  permanent 
pasture,  and  thus  save  all  interior  fences  on  the  cultivated  land. 

In  all  the  rolling  uplands  of  the  Upper  South,  in  North  Carolina,  South 
Carolina  and  Georgia,  there  are  elevated  lands  that  the  owners  have  persisted 
in  growing  cotton  upon  which  are  naturally  better  adapted  to  wheat.  Some 
years  ago,  when  traveling  through  the  upper  section  of  South  Carolina  on 
the  Southern  Railway,  a  gentleman,  evidently  a  farmer,  boarded  the  train, 
and  as  I  am  always  interested  in  talking  with  the  farmers  I  picked  up  an 
acquaintance  with  him  and  made  some  inquiries  about  the  country  through 
which  we  were  traveling,  between  Spartanburg  and  Atlanta.  I  found  that 
my  friend  was  an  intelligent  farmer,  who  had  come  there  from  a  wheat  grow- 
ing section  in  the  North  and  had  been  farming  for  a  number  of  years  in  this 
Piedmont  section.  He  said  that  having  been  a  wheat  grower  all  his  life,  he 
determined  to  continue  to  grow  wheat  and  clover,  as  he  could  not  see  why 
they  should  not  thrive  in  that  elevated  and  beautiful  section.  He  said  that 
the  first  year  when  he  sowed  wheat  he  was  laughed  at,  and  told  that  wheat 
would  not  make  much  of  a  crop  there.  He  made,  the  first  year,  only  6 
bushels  of  wheat  per  acre,  but  as  his  land  was  in  a  badly  run  down  condition 


Where  Winter  Wheat  is  tiip]  Money  Crop — 123 

he  was  not  surprised  at  this  and  simply  kept  on  following  a  rotation  which  he 
had  planned  for  the  improvement  of  the  land.  Last  season  he  said  that  his 
wheat  crop,  on  the  same  field  that  once  made  6  bushels  per  acre,  was  35 
bushels  per  acre,  and  that  he  was  satisfied  that  wheat  could  be  as  successfully 
grown  on  the  Southern  uplands  as  anywhere.  But  this  farmer  had  been  wise 
enough  to  adapt  his  farming  to  the  conditions  of  his  environment.  He  had 
found  that  in  the  sunny  South  red  clover  is  a  very  uncertain  crop,  and  that 
its  place  could  be  well  taken  by  the  Southern  pea.  Accordingly  he  had 
adopted  a  rotation  in  which  the  pea  took  the  place  of  clover,  and  enabled 
him  to  make  more  crops  in  a  short  rotation  than  he  could  with  clover,  which 
remained  on  the  land  a  whole  year.  His  rotation  was  corn,  with  peas  planted 
among  it  and  all  the  manure  of  the  farm  applied  to  it.  Com  cut  off  at  the 
ground,  cured  in  shocks  and  the  stover  all  saved  for  feed.  Land  well  disced, 
the  peas  chopped  up,  and  winter  oats  sown.  Next  spring  the  oats  are  har- 
vested and  the  land  at  once  prepared  for  peas,  with  a  dressing  of  acid  phos- 
phate and  potash.  Peas  are  mown  for  hay  and  the  land  again  disced  only, 
and  the  surface  made  fine  and  sown  to  wheat.  After  the  wheat  is  harvested 
the  land  is  plowed  and  peas  sown  again  and  another  crop  of  hay  made.  Rye 
is  then  sown  as  a  winter  cover,  and  during  the  winter  the  manure  is  gotten 
out,  spread  on  the  rye  and  all  turned  under  in  March  for  the  com  crop ;  and 
the  rotation  begins  again.  At  first  he  found  that  it  was  better,  in  the  poverty 
stricken  state  of  his  soil,  to  plow  under  all  the  meagre  growth  of  peas  for  the 
wheat  and  corn,  but  later  on,  as  the  growth  became  heavier,  he  found  that  this 
would  not  only  be  a  waste  of  feed,  but  that  the  land  could  not  be  so  well 
}»repared  for  the  wheat  crop.  He  then  got  to  feeding  more  cattle  and  utiliz- 
ing the  forage  he  was  growing  so  largely,  and  found  that  the  feeding  was  a 
profitable  part  of  his  farming;  and  that  his -land  was  constantly  improving 
while  the  farms  around  him,  which  were  being  worked  in  the  old  way,  in 
cotton  alone,  were  washing  and  wasting.  There  is  no  reason,  however,  that  a 
similar  rotation  should  not  be  fully  as  good  for  those  upland  farmers  who 
wish  to  adhere  to  the  cotton  crop.  In  their  case  the  rotation  could  be  made, 
corn  with  all  the  home-made  manure,  followed  by  wheat,  with  commercial 
fertilizer  without  nitrogen,  peas  after  the  wheat  is  cut,  and  these  made  into 
hay,  and  rye  sown  on  the  stubble  as  a  winter  cover,  and  plowed  under  in  early 
March  for  cotton.  Commercial  fertilizers  used  on  the  cotton,  and  crimson 
clover  sown  among  the  cotton  in  September.  Then,  during  the  winter,  get 
out  all  the  farm  manure  on  the  clover,  and  in  March  plow  all  under  for  corn 
and  begin  the  rotation  over  again.  In  this  rotation,  the  wheat,  coming 
directly  after  the  corn,  to  which  the  manure  and  clover  was  applied,  will  have 
the  best  chance,  will  need  no  fertilizer  except  acid  phosphate ;  the  cotton  f ol- 


124 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

lowing  the  peas  and  with  rye  plowed  under,  will  need  only  acid  phosphate 
and  potash,  with  perhaps  a  small  percentage  of  nitrate  of  soda,  to  give  it 
an  early  start.  Then,  if  the  peas  and  corn  and  corn  stover  are  utilized  in  the 
feeding  of  stock,  there  should,  in  a  few  years,  be  manure  enough  raised  to 
cover  the  entire  corn  tend. 

In  this  connection,  though  not  directly  in  regard  to  wheat  growing,  yet 
in  this  same  line  of  soil  development  through  the  feeding  of  the  abundant 
forage  that  every  Southern  farm  will  produce,  I  would  call  attention  to  the 
results  obtained  at  the  Tennessee  Agricultural  Experiment  Station,  connected 
with  the  University  of  Tennessee  at  Knoxville.  The  Tennessee  Station  has 
made  a  series  of  experiments  in  the  feeding  of  cattle,  primarily  to  determine 
whether  the  native  stock  of  the  country  could  be  fed  at  a  profit  for  beef,  and 
in  the  second  place  to  determine  whether  a  home  grown  ration  could  not  be 
made  to  profitably  replace  feed  that  they  would  have  to  buy.  They  used, 
in  the  experiment,  two  groups  of  four  steers  each.  The  experiment  began 
on  the  first  day  of  January,  1900,  and  continued  uninterruptedly  for  98  days. 
The  first  group  were  fed  all  the  shredded  corn  stover  they  would  eat  and  also 
G  pounds  of  cow  pea  hay  and  3  pounds  of  corn  meal.  The  second  group  were 
also  fed  corn  stover  ad  libitum,  and  for  part  of  the  time  had  6  to  16  pounds 
of  cotton  seed  bran  and  4  to  7  pounds  of  cotton  seed  meal,  and  then  were 
changed  to  6  pounds  of  the  cotton  seed  bran,  3  pounds  of  cotton  seed  meal 
and  4  pounds  of  corn  meal.  The  cotton  seed  bran  is  the  finely  ground  cotton 
seed  hulls,  which  is  being  largely  advertised  in  the  South  for  cattle  roughage. 
But  the  experiment  showed  that  it  has  little  food  value,  is  heavy  and  indi- 
gestible, and  does  not  answer  for  roughage  as  well  as  the  crude  hulls  them- 
selves ;  and  these,  in  our  opinion,  are  little  better  than  pine  shavings.  These 
rations  were  gradually  increased,  until,  at  the  close,  the  first  group  received 
10  pounds  of  cow  pea  hay  and  11  pounds  of  corn  meal,  and  the  second  group 
had  7  pounds  corn  meal  and  5  pounds  of  cotton  seed  meal.  Without  enter- 
ing here  into  the  details  of  the  experiment  we  give  the  conclusions  arrived  at : 

1.  Tennessee  is  admirably  adapted  to  the  production  of  stockers,  which 
can  be  successfully  fed  on  the  products  of  the  rich  valley  farms.  2.  Stock 
husbandry  has  valuable  effect  on  soil  fertility,  as  90  per  cent.,  and  over,  of  the 
fertilizing  ingredients  in  the  foods  consumed,  are  available  for  the  restoration 
of  soil  fertility  .  3.  Cotton  seed  bran  is  too  expensive  for  roughage  and  has  an 
unfavorable  effect  on  digestion,  producing  impaction  of  the  rumen.  Tennessee 
farmers  cannot  afford  to  use  it  in  this  form,  and  all  the  roughage  needed  in 
cattle  feeding  can  be  produced  more  cheaply  on  the  farm  than  an3^where  else. 
4.  Cow  pea  vine  hay  made  an  admirable  substitute  for  cotton  seed  meal.  As 
it  is  not  so  rich  in  protein,  however,  it  should  be  fed  at  the  rate  of  two  to 


Where  Wintek  Wheat  is  the  Moitey  Crop — 125 

three  pounds  of  the  former  to  one  of  the  latter.  5.  It  is  seen  from  these  tests 
that  a  home  grown  ration  of  shredded  stover,  cow  pea  vine  hay  and  corn  meal, 
can  be  fed  with  success  to  a  fair  type  of  native  cattle.  This  means  much  to 
the  farmers  of  Tennessee.  Tennessee  is  admirably  adapted  to  the  production 
of  the  cow  pea.  On  good  land  two  tons  of  this  plant  can  be  produced  per 
acre,  yielding  431.6  pounds  of  protein,  costing  4.63  per  pound.  Besides  this 
it  stores  up  in  the  soil  nitrogen  which  it  gathers  from  the  air.  In  view  of 
its  value  in  feeding  it  should  be  cultivated  much  more  extensively  for  this 
purpose.  7.  Cotton  seed  meal  gave  the  better  results  when  combined  with 
corn  meal,  in  proportion  of  one  pound  of  the  former  to  one  and  a  quarter 
pounds  of  the  latter,  than  when  fed  alone.  8.  This  experiment  indicates 
that  native  steers  can  be  successfully  fed  at  home  at  a  fair  profit.  It  further 
indicates  that  all  the  corn  stover  now  wasting  in  the  fields  should  be  shredded 
and  fed.  9.  The  tables  bring  out  the  importance  of  individuality  in  the 
animal,  and  show  the  necessity  of  improving  our  feeding  stocks  by  crossing 
with  pure  bred  sires.  10.  The  results  of  this  experiment  favor  the  use  of  a 
ration  of  corn  stover,  cow  pea  vine  hay  and  corn  meal,  in  preference  to  one 
of  shredded  corn  stover,  cotton  seed  bran  and  cotton  seed  meal.  11.  Con- 
formation and  uniformity  of  type  are  important  in  cattle  feeding,  as  they 
materially  affect  the  selling  price.  12.  The  average  gain  in  live  weight  in 
group  one  was  1.99  and  in  group  two,  1.75  pounds  per  day.  The  best 
individual  gain  was  2.50  pounds,  and  the  poorest,  1.53  pounds.  13.  The 
average  cost  for  food  for  group  one  was  $9.25 ;  for  group  two,  $12.63,  a  dif- 
ference of  $3.38  in  favor  of  home  produced  rations.  14.  The  net  cost 
of  a  pound  of  gain  with  group  one  was  2.65  cents;  with  group  two,  4.21 
cents.  This  was  chiefly  due  to  the  difference  in  market  prices  of  the  foods 
fed.  15.  Group  one  consumed  an  average  of  7.70  pounds  of  dry  matter; 
group  two,  9.32  pounds;  group  one  consumed  an  average  of  5.27  pounds  of 
digestible  matter  and  group  two,  5.10  pounds  of  digestible  matter  for  a 
pound  of  gain.  16.  The  average  amount  of  water  consumed  by  group  one 
per  day  was  42.90  pounds,  and  by  group  two,  43.51  pounds.  The  highest 
amount  consumed  by  any  one  individual  was  50.36  pounds,  and  the  lowest, 
39.09  pounds.  17.  The  average  live  weight  of  group  one  was  956  pounds, 
and  of  group  two,  950.2  pounds.  The  average  dressed  weight  of  group  one 
was  527.6  pounds,  and  of  group  two,  529.5  pounds.  The  percentage  of  valu- 
able meat  in  group  one  was  55.75,  and  in  group  two,  55.52.  The  highest 
percentage  of  valuable  meat  with  a  single  individual  was  59.13  and  the  lowest 
53.56.  This  is  considerably  below  the  standard  for  good  cattle,  but  a  single 
cross  would  materially  improve  these  results.  18.  The  average  net  increase 
by  feeding  was  $8.37  with  group  one,  and  $7.71  with  group  two.     19.  The 


126 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

average  cost  of  a  pound  of  gain  was  4.82  cents  with  group  one,  and  7.12  cents 
with  group  two.  20.  The  average  net  gain,  allowing  for  care  at  3  cents  a 
day,  was  $6.15  with  group  one  and  $3.62  with  group  two.  The  average  net 
gain,  less  care,  was  $8.98  with  group  one  and  $5.93  with  group  two. 

We  have  given  these  results  here  in  full  for  the  purpose  of  showing  that 
in  other  sections  of  the  South,  where  the  cow  pea  flourishes  far  better  than 
in  the  upland  country  of  East  Tennessee  where  these  experiments  were  made, 
farmers  can  produce  an  abundance  of  the  finest  of  cattle  food,  and  can,  in 
the  feeding  of  beef  cattle,  make  a  larger  profit  than  most  of  them  are  now 
making  with  cotton;  and  can,  at  the  same  time,  be  growing  a  crop  that  will 
improve  their  soil  for  the  production  of  cotton  and  other  crops.  While  we 
appreciate  the  great  value  of  commercial  fertilizers  as  fully  as  anyone,  we 
cannot  too  often  repeat  that  the  feeding  of  stock  lies  at  the  beginning  of  all 
rational  farm  improvement,  either  in  the  North  or  the  South ;  and  the  sooner 
the  Southern  farmer  learns  the  wonderful  advantage  he  has  in  the  cow  pea  the 
sooner  will  permanent  prosperity  dawn  upon  him.  If  the  feeding  of  native 
cattle  on  the  foods  so  easily  produced  in  all  parts  of  the  cotton  belt  can  be 
made  profitable  in  Tennessee,  it  can  be  made  even  more  profitable  in  the  soils 
of  the  Atlantic  border  where  the  cow  pea  flourishes  far  better  than  in  East 
Tennessee.  To  one  who  has  studied  these  things  through  long  years  of  farm 
experience  it  is  amazing  to  note  how  slow  the  farmers  are,  not  only  in  the 
South,  but  throughout  the  wheat  growing  section  of  the  Middle  States,  to 
seize  upon  the  means  that  will  enable  them  to  prosper  as  they  have  never 
done.  The  experiments  at  the  Tennessee  Station  simply  corroborate  those 
made  at  the  Delaware  Station  in  feeding  cow  pea  hay  to  milch  cows  as  a 
substitute  for  the  bran  the  dairymen  are  continually  buying.  It  was  shown 
there  with  cows,  as  it  was  with  the  beeves  at  the  Tennessee  Station,  that 
the  protein  needed  in  a  ration  can  be  more  cheaply  supplied  by  the  cow  pea 
than  by  purchased  food;  for  it  was  shown  in  Delaware  that  cows  that  had 
been  for  a  time  fed  on  a  ration  in  which  the  protein  was  furnished  by  the 
bran,  did  not  shrink  in  milk  when  taken  from  that  to  one  in  which  cow  pea 
hay  furnished  the  protein,  but  that  when  they  were  put  back  from  the  pea 
vine  hay  to  the  bran  again,  there  was  a  shrinkage  in  the  milk  yield.  The 
significance  of  these  results  to  the  wheat  grower  in  the  Southern  and  Middle 
States  is  plain.  It  shows  that  while  improving  their  soil  through  the  grow- 
ing of  the  pea,  they  caii  at  the  same  time  produce  a  food  that  will  take  the 
place  of  costly  purchased  food,  and  will  enable  them  to  turn  out  the  finished 
products  at  a  far  less  cost  and  consequently  at  a  greater  profit.  The  cotton 
grower  may  imagine  that  he  can  do  without  stock,  but  the  wheat  grower  who 
does  not  keep  and  feed  cattle  is  even  more  shortsighted  than  the  cotton  man. 


Where  Winter  Wheat  is  the  Money  Crop — 127 


FERTILIZERS  FOR  WHEAT. 


It  will  not  do  to  assume  that  because  in  certain  sections  the  farmers 
have  succeeded  in  greatly  increasing  their  wheat  crops  through  the  use  of 
phosphatic  fertilizers  only,  that  the  same  practice  will  insure  success  on  all 
wheat  soils.  As  a  rule,  most  of  our  best  wheat  soils  of  the  winter  wheat  sec- 
tion of  the  Atlantic  slope,  are  not  deficient  in  potash  to  the  extent  that  they 
are  in  phosphoric  acid.  It  is  these  two  which  most  concern  us,  for,  no 
matter  what  the  soil,  a  proper  rotation  with  legumes  will  give  us  all  the 
nitrogen  needed  by  the  crop.  But  every  farmer,  no  matter  what  his  crop, 
should  find  out  for  himself  what  his  land  especially  needs.  He  must  be  an 
experimenter  if  he  hopes  to  farm  successfully  and  economically.  How  these 
experiments  should  be  made  willform  the  subject  of  a  special  chapter.  Lime, 
of  course,  is  useful  in  wheat  farming,  but  we  do  not  class  lime  and  plaster  as 
fertilizers,  but  as  reagents,  for  bringing  about  chemical  changes  in  the  soil. 
The  place  for  lime  in  the  three  year  rotation  for  wheat  is  on  the  clover  that  is 
to  go  in  corn  the  next  season,  and  the  time  to  put  it  there  is  in  the  early 
spring  of  the  season  in  which  the  clover  is  to  be  cut.  Once  in  six  years  is 
often  enough  to  use  lime  unless  the  application  is  very  light.  But  we  would 
use  phosphoric  acid,  or  phosphoric  acid  and  potash,,  on  the  wheat,  not 
only  for  the  benefit  of  the  wheat  but  for  insuring  a  better  stand  and  growth 
of  the  clover.  The  practice  of  using  the  farm  maw.ure  as  a  top  dressing  for 
the  wheat  in  winter,  may  be  a  good  practice  in  some  cold  sections  as  a  pre- 
ventive of  winter  killing;  but,  on  strong  land,  it  tends  too  much  towards  the 
getting  of  a  rank  growth  of  straw  at  the  expense  of  grain,  and  increases  the 
danger  of  lodging.  The  place  for  all  the  farm  manure  is  on  the  sod'  that  is  to 
be  plowed  for  corn  in  the  spring.  During  the  summer's  cultivation  of  the  corn 
crop  it  gets  mingled  with  the  soil,  and  much  remains  untouched  below,  to 
feed  the  wheat  that  follows  the  corn.  In  the  more  northern  section  of  the 
winter  wheat  belt  it  is  doubtless  necessary  to  put-  the  wheat  in  earlier  than 
corn  land  will  allow,  and  there  a  longer  rotation  is  needed. 

WHAT  A  CROP  OF  WHEAT  REMOVES  FROM  THE  SOIL. 

An  average  good  crop  of  wheat  of  20  bushels  per  acre,  will  remove  from 
the  soil  in  the  grain  alone — and  this  is  all  we  need  be  concerned  about  since 
the  straw  will  go  back  to  the  land — 28.32  pounds  of  nitrogen,  10.68  pounds 
of  phosphoric  acid  and  7.32  pounds  of  potash.  It  will  be  seen,  then,  that 
the  relative  importance  of  these  food  constituents  is  pretty  much  as  they 
stand.     But,  so  far  as  the  nitrogen  is  concerned,  we  will  have  left  over  in  the 


128 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

organic  matter  of  the  clover  and  manure  applied  to  the  corn  crop  in  a  three 
year  rotation,  all  the  nitrogen  the  wheat  will  need;  and  we  need  but  con- 
sider the  needs  of  the  crop  as  regards  the  phosphoric  acid  and  potash,  and 
to  ascertain  what  the  needs  of  the  soil  are  as  regards  these.  The  maturing 
of  the  seed  of  the  plant  draws  more  heavily  on  the  phosphoric  acid  in  the 
soil  than  it  does  on  the  potash,  and  hence  the  relative  greater  importance  of 
the  phosphoric  acid  in  the  fertilizer.  Then,  too,  we  find  that  in  order  to  get 
best  results  from  an  application  of  potash  it  is  essential  that  it  be  accom- 
panied by  a  due  proportion  of  phosphoric  acid,  since  neither  potash  nor 
phosphoric  acid  will  have  as  good  effect  applied  alone  as  in  combination. 
With  nearly  all  the  cereal  grains  it  will  be  found  that  phosphoric  acid  is  the 
controlling  factor  in  any  mixture.  But  in  clover  the  proportion  of  potash 
is  considerably  larger  than  that  of  phosphoric  acid.  Then  in  devising  a  fer- 
tilizer for  the  wheat  crop  on  which  we  propose  to  sow  clover  it  will  be  wise 
to  regard  the  needs  of  the  clover  for  potash,  and  supply  it ;  for  we  may  rest 
assured  that  the  soil  will  hold  on  to  it  for  the  clover,  even  if  the  wheat  does 
not  need  it.  A  crop  of  two  tons  of  clover  hay  per  acre  will  require  for  the 
hay  alone  82.82  pounds  of  nitrogen,  15.2  pounds  of  phosphoric  acid  and  88 
pounds  of  potash.  The  nitrogen  it  will  get  largely  from  the  air,  but  the 
potash  must  be  in  the  soil.  In  this  we  take  no  account  of  what  is  in  the 
roots  and  stubble,  as  that  goes  into  the  soil,  but  the  amount  of  potash  in  the 
hay  is  seen  to  be  large,  and  must  be  supplied  to  make  the  best  crop. 


thorough  preparation  of  the  soil  as  important  as  fertilizers  for 

WHEAT. 

A  hard  lump  of  phosphatic  rock  may  lie  in  the  soil  for  generations 
and  produce  little  effect  on  the  vegetation.  But  let  that  rock  be  pulverized 
to  an  impalpable  powder,  and  scattered  through  the  soil,  and  the  effect  will 
soon  be  apparent.  In  a  similar  manner,  a  hard  lump  of  soil  may  have  in 
it  a  store  of  plant  food,  but  the  roots  of  the  plants  cannot  get  at  it ;  and  the 
lumpy  character  of  such  soil  renders  it  liable  to  dry  out  rapidly  and  thus 
prevent  the  proper  solution  of  the  plant  food  that  may  be  in  the  soil,  either 
naturally  or  applied  in  the  fertilizer. 

While  deep  plowing  is  as  essential  to  wheat  growing  as  to  that  of  any 
other  crop,  the  fine,  searching  roots  of  the  plant  require  that  the  soil  should 
be  in  a  completely  comminuted  state,  and  well  settled,  so  that  the  plant  food 
can  be  released;  and  capillary  attraction  set  up  in  the  soil  to  keep  up  the 
regular  supply  of  moisture  from  below.     If  wheat  is  sown  in  a  dry  soil  dur- 


Where  Winter  Wheat  is  the  Money  Crop — 129 

ing  dry  weather,  and  the  soil  particles  are  but  slightly  broken  up  and  the 
clods  lie  loosely,  there  is  every  chance,  in  our  dry  autumn  weather,  that  the 
wheat  will  fail  to  germinate,  while  if  the  soil  is  plowed  early,  and  thoroughly 
fined  and  settled  by  repeated  harrowings  and  rollings,  the  wheat  may  be 
sown  in  a  very  dry  time  with  every  chance  in  its  favor.  It  takes  little  obser- 
vation, when  passing  through  the  country  after  wheat  seeding,  to  see  the 
difference  in  the  stand  on  well  prepared  fields  and  on  hastily  plowed  and 
seeded  ones.  On  a  good  wheat  soil  we  had  rather  take  the  chances  for  a  good 
crop  on  soil  thoroughly  prepared  and  with  no  fertilizer,  than  on  a  hastily 
prepared  and  late  plowed  field  with  the  best  of  fertilization.  We  cannot 
too  often  repeat,  that  the  homogenous  condition  of  the  soil,  made  by  thor- 
ough preparation,  fining  and  packing,  is  the  great  essential  to  a  good  crop  of 
grain. 

green  manuring  for  wheat. 

For  many  years  writers  in  the  agricultural  papers  have  recommended 
the  plowing  under  of  clover  or  peas  as  a  preparation  for  the  wheat  crop.  In 
the  heavier  glacier  clays  of  the  North  this  may  probably  be  done  without 
harm,  but  in  the  South,  especially  on  a  light  soil,  such  a  practice  is  often 
more  productive  of  damage  than  good,  from  the  evolution  of  organic  acids  in 
the  hot  soil  and  warm  season.  A  heavy  vegetable  growth  can  be  safely 
plowed  under  in  the  early  spring  when  the  soil  is  to  be  stirred  for  a  hoed 
crop,  but  in  the  warm  season  the  plowing  under  of  any  green  mass  is  apt  to 
produce  disastrous  results.  And  even  where  there  may  not  be  as  much 
danger  from  the  souring  of  the  soil  as  there  certainly  is  south  of  the  Potomac^ 
the  burying  of  a  large  amount  of  organic  matter  in  the  soil,  just  before 
wheat  seeding,  will  prevent  the  proper  firming  and  uniform  condition  essen- 
tial to  success  with  the  wheat  crop.  One  of  the  worst  failures  I  ever  saw 
was  from  the  burying  of  a  great  growth  of  cow  peas  in  September.  The 
mass  was  so  heavy  that  it  could  not  be  well  buried,  and  the  soil  did  not  get 
the  preparation  it  needed.  The  wheat  grew  off  well,  and  there  was  a  fine 
stand  of  grass,  which  was  the  thing  mainly  wanted.  In  the  spring  the 
growth  of  wheat  was  enormous  from  the  rapid  nitrification  of  the  organic 
matter  in  the  soil,  but  as  soon  as  headed  it  all  fell  flat,  and  the  result  was 
a  very  poor  crop  of  wheat  and  the  grass  was  smothered  out,  so  that  the  whole 
thing  had  to  be  done  over.  This  was  in  Maryland  up  near  the  Pennsylvania 
line.  Here  in  the  South  such  a  plowing  under  would  probably  have  resulted 
in  such  a  souring  that  nothing  would  have  grown  at  all  till  the  land  was 
heavily  limed  to  restore  its  sweetness. 


130 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

I  once  addressed  a  Farmers'  Institute  in  North  Carolina,  and  was  trying 
to  show  the  farmers  the  advantage  of  growing  the  cow  pea.  I  soon  found 
that  my  audience  hardly  agreed  with  me.  But  when  I  showed  them  the 
danger  of  plowing  under  the  peas  green,  I  saw  that  I  was  getting  more  atten- 
tion. When  I  closed,  a  farmer  rose  in  the  audience  and  said:  "We  thought 
that  you  were  going  to  advise  the  plowing  under  of  the  peas.  Some  years 
ago  Prof.  —  came  down  here  and  urged  us  to  grow  peas  as  a  green  manure 
crop.  Some  of  us  tried  it  and  soured  our  land  so  that  for  a  year  or  two  it 
would  hardly  produce  anything,  and  since  that  we  have  been  afraid  of  peas.'' 
From  that  day's  talk,  however,  the  farmers  of  that  section  realized  the  true 
value  of  the  cow  pea,  and  now  they  are  grown  on  every  vacant  spot  during 
the  summer.  One  of  the  leading  farmers  in  the  upper  Piedmont  section  of 
North  Carolina,  in  a  good  wheat  growing  section,  assured  me  that  he  had  had 
disastrous  results  from  the  plowing  under  of  a  heavy  growth  of  rag  weed  on 
a  wheat  stubble,  in  preparing  the  land  for  wheat  again.  The  instances  are 
so  numerous  in  the  South  of  the  evil  results  of  plowing  under  green  vegeta- 
tion in  hot  weather,  there  cannot  be  any  doubt  of  the  danger  of  such  a 
practice. 

But  even  where  the  plowing  under  may  not  result  as  badly  as  it  does  in 
the  South,  the  plowing  under  of  a  great  mass  of  vegetation  is  a  bad  prepara- 
tion for  the  wheat  crop,  as  it  prevents  the  proper  firming  of  the  soil  so  essen- 
tial to  the  success  of  the  crop.  But  the  main  reason  why  green  manuring,  as  it 
is  called,  is  a  bad  practice,  is  that  it  is  wasteful,  and  not  in  accordance  with 
true  business  principles.  The  great  reason  for  the  growing  of  a  crop  oi 
clover  or  peas  is  the  acquisition  of  the  nitrogen  of  the  air  and  the  storing 
of  it  in  the  soil.  Now  if  the  clover  or  peas  are  plowed  under  at  midsummer, 
they  have  not  done  anywhere  near  what  they  would  do  for  us  in  the  way  of 
getting  nitrogen,  for  this  is  mainly  done  during  the  later  period  of  growth 
approaching  the  maturity  of  the  plant.  If  the  crop  is  allowed  to  fully 
mature,  there  will  be  about  as  much  left  in  the  roots  as  the  whole  crop  con- 
tained at  an  earlier  period  of  its  growth.  Then,  too,  the  feeding  value  of 
the  pea  crop  is  fully  $20  per  acre,  and  it  must  be  an  extra  valuable  crop  that 
will  warrant  the  use  of  food  of  that  value  as  a  manure  direct,  especially  when 
by  feeding  it  and  carefully  saving  the  manure,  we  can  recover  a  large  part  of 
the  manurial  value  in  the  droppings  of  the  animals.  Hence,  we  insist  that 
green  manuring,  either  North  or  South,  does  not  mean  the  burying  of  the 
legumes  as  a  whole;  but  the  fertilization  of  the  crop  as  food  for  cattle  and 
the  careful  saving  of  the  manure.  Grow  legumes  as  a  matter  of  course,  and 
allow  them  to  do  all  the  nitrogen  gathering  they  are  capable  of  doing,  but  do 
not  cut  short  the  work  they  are  doing  because  of  the  theories  of  men  who  have 


Where  Winter  Wheat  is  the  Money  Crop — 131 

only  a  theoretical  idea  of  the  subject.  Legume  growing  is  the  most  im- 
portant thing  in  connection  with  the  improvement  of  the  soil,  but  the  term 
"green  manuring"  is  misleading  to  the  inexperienced,  and  is  one  which  should 
never  be  used. 

WHEAT  AFTER  A  HOED  CROP. 

Farmers  in  many  sections  have  gotten  a  prejudice  against  "corn  ground 
whont,"  because  of  the  old  common  practice  of  plowing  in  the  wheat  on  the 
corn  land.  Where  the  land  has  been  properly  plowed  and  prepared  for  the 
corn  or  tobacco  crop,  and  has  been  rapidly  and  well  cultivated  in  a  shallow 
manner,  it  has,  by  the  time  wheat  should  be  sown,  gotten  into  a  fine  condi- 
tion for  the  best  success  with  wheat;  and  if  the  corn  is  taken  off  the  ground 
and  the  wheat  drilled  directly  on  the  well  cultivated  soil,  the  crop  is  apt  to 
be  a  good  one.  Putting  in  wheat  after  a  hoed  crop  has  the  advantage  that 
the  legume  crop  and  the  home-made  manure  can  be  used  for  the  corn  crop, 
and  will,  by  seeding  time,  have  gotten  well  mixed  and  assimilated  to  the  soil, 
and  there  will  not  be  an  excess  of  the  nitrifying  organic  matter,  but  plenty 
for  the  wheat,  and  only  phosphatic  and  potassic  fertilizers  will  be  needed. 
A  three  year  rotation,  in  which  the  wheat  comes  after  a  hoed  crop,  will,  in 
the  long  run,  be  the  best  for  the  improvement  of  the  soil  and  the  development 
of  the  wheat  crop. 

A  summer  fallow  may  at  once  give  a  better  crop  of  wheat,  but  it  will  be 
made  at  the  expense  of  the  best  interests  of  the  soil;  far  better  have  for  a 
while  a  smaller  wheat  crop  and  be  building  up  the  soil.  Pasturing  a  .crop  of 
clover  till  the  bare  ground  shows  all  over  the  field,  and  then  at  midsummer 
turning  the  soil  up  to  the  sun  and  preparing  it  for  wheat,  may  give  you  a 
wheat  crop,  but  the  land  will  be  losing  humus  and  running  together  hard, 
the  corn  crop  will  be  dwindling,  and,  finally,  the  wheat  crop  will  be  grown 
mainly  by  the  application  of  a  complete  and  costly  fertilizer.  Far  better 
stick  to  the  short  rotation,  have  a  permanent  pasture  and  never  graze  the 
cultivated  fields.  We  saw  the  evil  results  the  present  summer  in  the  fine 
wheat  lands  of  Talbot  Co.,  Maryland,  of  the  practice  of  close  grazing.  They 
get  fine  wheat  crops,  but  the  land  runs  together  and  needs  humus  badly  for 
the  best  results  with  the  other  crops.  In  travelling  over  the  northern  sec- 
tion of  Indiana  late  in  the  fall  a  few  years  ago,  I  was  struck  with  the  vivid 
green  of  the  strip  between  the  railroad  fences  and  the  bare  and  brown  fields  on 
either  side  of  the  track.  The  farmers  were  evidently  running  too  long  a 
rotation  and  robbing  their  soil  of  humus  by  closS  grazing.  A  short  rotation 
would  give  far  more  forage  for  cattle  and  would  save  the  great  waste  of 


132 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

fertility  that  is  going  on  there.  Ere  long  those  lands* will  reach  the  point 
where  wheat  will  grow  only  by  liberal  fertilization,  the  necessity  for  which 
could  be  avoided  by  a  timely  method  of  systematic  farming.  The  old  notion 
that  stock  and  dairy  farming  require  a  long  rotation,  and  the  keeping  of  the 
land  in  grass  till  the  grass  runs  out,  hence,  dividing  up  the  farm  into  a 
multitude  of  small  fields  to  be  pastured  in  their  turn,  is  fast  giving  way  to 
a  more  rational  system  in  which  the  great  American  forage  crop,  Indian 
corn,  plays  an  important  part ;  and  the  silo  becomes  the  means  for  increasing 
the  manure  deposit,  and  the  fertility  of  the  soil.  Feeding  the  whole  corn 
crop,  stalks  and  all,  in  the  most  complete  manner,  and  using  the  legume  crop 
to  balance  it,  enables  the  dairy  farmer  to  become  a  wheat  grower  as  well, 
and  to  greatly  increase  the  productive  capacity  of  his  soil  for  his  money  crops 
of  grain  and  the  dairy.  Growing  wheat  in  a  three  year  rotation,  with 
legumes  and  Indian  corn,  gives  the  dairyman  two  strings  to  his  bow  while 
increasing  the  strength  of  both. 


CHAPTEE  XIV. 
FERTILIZERS  FOR  THE  PERMANENT  PASTURE. 

Most  of  the  so-called  permanent  pastures  are  rather  poor  excuses  for 
pasturage.  In  many  cases  the  land  selected,  and  properly  so,  is  a  piece  too 
steep  or  rocky  for  cultivation,  and  it  is  expected  to  produce  food  for  cattle 
year  after  year,  with  no  help  whatever  but  the  droppings.  Big  weeds  are 
allowed  to  sap  its  fertility  and  run  out  the  grass,  and  no  return  is  made  to 
the  land  for  the  food  taken  away.  The  idea  of  giving  fertilizers  to  the 
pasture  does  not  seem  to  be  thought  of ;  and  yet  there  is  no  part  of  the  farm 
that  will  so  well  repay  feeding.  In  some  sections,  where  grazing  on  the  hill 
lands  has  become  a  feature  of  the  agriculture  of  lands  practically  worthless 
otherwise,  it  has  been  found  that  an  annual  top  dressing  of  commercial 
fertilizers  has  brought  up  the  hill  land  to  a  capacity  for  feeding  stock  for- 
merly undreamed  of. 

To  keep  up  the  productivity  of  a  pasture  it  must,  in  the  first  place,  be 
kept  clean  of  anything  but  grass.  Clipping  of  the  weeds  and  regular  scat- 
tering of  the  droppings  will  do  much  towards  the  keeping  of  the  grass  good. 
But  we  must  remember  that  in  the  milk  and  in  the  bones  of  growing  animals 
there  is  going  on  a  constant  waste  of  the  phosphates,  and  these  must  be 
replaced.  Then,  too,  nitrogen  is  needed  for  the  best  success  with  grass,  and 
as  we  are  here  making  no  rotation  with  legumes  for  gathering  it,  we  must 
add  some  in  our  fertilizer.  For  the  permanent  pasture  we  have  never  found 
anything  so  good  as  finely  ground  raw  bone  meal.  This  has  about  4  per  cent, 
of  nitrogen,  and  the  most  of  the  remainder  is  a  bone  phosphate  of  lime  in 
which  the  phosphoric  acid  becomes  available  by  degrees,  and  is  better  adapted 
to  the  keeping  up  of  a  uniform  herbage  than  a  more  readily  available  form. 
Once  in  six  or  eight  years  a  moderate  dressing  of  lime  will  be  a  great  help, 
especially  if  the  grass  is  mainly  that  known  as  Kentucky  Blue  grass,  which, 

(188) 


134 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

being  a  limestone  loving  grass,  is  greatly  improved  on  other  soils  by  an 
occasional  dressing  of  lime.  I  have  seen  steep  hills  which  have  been  pas- 
tured annually  for  a  generation  and  thus  top  dressed,  which  to-day  feed  more 
cattle  than  they  did  40  years  ago,  though  they  have  not  been  plowed  in.  all 
tliat  time. 

GRASSES    for    PERMANENT    PASTURE. 

While  not  directly  connected  with  the  subject  of  fertilization,  there  is 
so  much  interest  in  various  parts  of  the  country  in  the  matter  of  permanent 
grass  pastures,  a  few  words  in  regard  to  the  best  grasses  will  not  be  amiss. 
All  along  the  Atlantic  border,  from  Maryland  southward,  the  Bermuda  grass, 
or  Cynodon  Dactylon,  has  established  itself;  and  has,  in  many  places  near 
the  northern  limit  of  its  growth,  become  a  source  of  much  annoyance  to  the 
grower  of  wheat  and  other  small  grain,  through  its  persistent  and  rapid 
growth  often  choking  out  the  sown  grain.  The  farmers  of  this  section  know 
this  under  the  name  of  wire  grass,  and  in  Northern  Maryland  it  meets  and 
mingles  with  the  Northern  quack  (or  couch)  grass,  and  both  go  under  the 
common  name  of  "wire  grass.''  In  that  section,  and  in  the  upper  country 
of  the  South,  Bermuda  grass  is  only  a  nuisance.  But  coming  South 
along  the  coast  plain,  on  the  sandy  lands  devoted  to  cotton  culture,  it  attains 
an  increased  importance  and  becomes  the  most  valuable  of  all  grasses  for 
permanent  pasture.  It  is  true  that  it  is  a  hot  weather  grass  only  and  makes 
no  show  in  winter;  but  if  mixed  with  Texas  blue  grass  {Poa  Arachnifera) , 
which  is  purely  a  winter  growing  grass,  there  is  nothing  to  be  desired  so  far 
as  a  permanent  pasture  is  concerned,  and  the  two  together  will  make,  on 
the  most  sandy  lands  of  the  cotton  belt,  a  sod  equal  to  that  of  the  Blue  grass 
of  Kentucky. 

But  in  all  the  upper  red  clay  lands  of  the  South  we  do  not  advise  the 
use  of  the  Bermuda,  for  in  these  lands  the  orchard  grass  and  mountain 
blue  grass  (Poa  Compressa)  will  be  found  better  adapted;  and  the  white 
clover,  and  in  shaded  places,  Kentucky  blue  grass,  will  come  in  naturally 
if  the  fertility  of  the  soil  is  maintained  by  an  annual  dressing  of  bone  meal. 
In  the  sandy  soils  of  the  coast  region  the  Bermuda  and  Texas  blue  grass  have 
no  rivals,  and  here  the  fertilizer  should  be  varied,  and  a  good  percentage  of 
potash  added  to  the  dressing.  The  Bermuda,  left  alone,  makes  the  densest 
of  sod,  since  its  running  stems  spread  in  every  direction,  burying  each  other 
by  growth  above  till  the  stems  below  die  and  decay  and  gradually  accumu- 
late a  mass  of  decayed  organic  matter,  and  the  sod  gets  ^Tiide  bound." 
To  restore  it,  put  in  a  strong  team  and  plow  the  sod  so  as  to  merely  turn  it 


Fertilizers  for  the  Permanent  Pasture — 135 

over  about  four  or  five  inches  deep,  and  harrow  and  roll.  Then  apply  a  coat 
of  freshly  water  slaked  lime  at  rate  of  20  bushels  per  acre.  Do  this  in  the 
spring  about  corn  planting  time,  and  you  will  at  once  have  a  fresh  and 
strong  growth  as  the  soil  warms  up,  and  when  well  under  way  apply  the  bone 
and  potash  dressing  at  rate  of  200  pounds  of  bone  to  50  pounds  of  muriate 
of  potash.  Plowed  and  renewed  in  this  way  once  in  eight  or  ten  years,  there 
is  nothing  that  can  surpass  the  Bermuda  and  Texas  blue  grass,  on  the  lands 
to  which  they  are  suited  and  in  the  climate  where  they  belong. 

In  the  upland  red  clay  soils  of  the  Piedmont  section  of  the  South,  the 
best  grasses  we  have  ever  tried  for  a  permanent  pasture  are  orchard  grass, 
red  top,  Kentucky  blue  grass  and  white  clover.  Of  the  three  grasses  we 
would  sow  10  pounds  each  per  acre,  and  then  scatter  about  4  pounds  per  acre 
of  the  white  clover.  The  orchard  grass  and  red  top  will  at  once  make  their 
appearance,  and  while  the  red  top  will  not  be  a  permanent  grass  on  the 
uplands,  it  will  furnish  the  first  green  and  will  help  to  protect  the  coming 
of  the  blue  grass  among  the  tussocks  of  the  orchard  grass,  and  if  the  land  is 
dressed  and  limed  as  heretofore  advised,  the  blue  grass  will  finally  become 
the  main  sod  of  the  field.  In  the  southern  part  of  the  upland  region  of  the 
South  I  would  leave  out  the  Kentucky  blue  grass  and  substitute  the  moun- 
tain blue  grass  (Poa  Compressa) .  This  grass  is  almost  as  persistent  as  the 
Bermuda,  and  forms  a  dense  sod,  and  should  never  be  allowed  to  encroach 
on  the  cultivated  fields,  since  on  heavy  and  moist  land  it  is  as  hard  to  get  rid 
of  as  the  Bermuda.  But  it  is  far  better  adapted  to  Southern  conditions 
than  the  Poa  Pratense,  or  Kentucky  blue  grass. 

It  seems  probable  from  experiments  that  have  been  made  that  the 
Smooth  Brome  grass  (Bromus  Inermis)  will  be  a  valuable  pasture  grass  on 
the  lighter  lands  of  the  South,  and  it  is  well  worth  experimenting  with  till 
its  true  value  is  determined. 

From  the  mountains  of  Virginia,  all  over  the  Southern  uplands,  there 
are  now  thousands  of  acres  of  worn  and  wasted  land,  washed  into  gullies 
and  in  some  places  irredeemable,  which  could  be  put  to  use  as  pasture  if 
properly  treated.  These  lands  now,  where  there  are  no  deep  gulleys,  are 
generally  covered  by  the  broomsedge  that  nature  puts  on  every  wasted  spot  in 
the  South.  The  broomsedge  itself  is  not  a  bad  pasture  in  the  early  sprinp- 
but  it  soon  gets  tough  and  worthless;  and  if  these  hills  are  to  be  utilized 
as  pasture  we  must  get  something  better  than  broomsedge  on  them.  An 
experiment  I  made  years  ago  in  the  mountains  of  Virginia  showed  that  this 
can  be  done  easily.  I  had  a  rough  and  rocky  mountain  side  that  had  never 
been  plowed,  and  that  was  really  too  rocky  to  attempt  to  plow.  But  it  was 
ner>r  the  barn  and  would  make  a  convenient  place  to  turn  the  cows  at  night 


136 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

rather  than  drive  them  back  to  a  distant  pasture  or  keep  them  in  the  yards 
all  night,  which  last  was  not  to  be  thought  of.  About  that  time  I  noticed 
that  all  along  the  railroad  coming  from  the  South,  the  Lespedeza,  or  Japan 
clover,  was  creeping  in.  It  had  not  reached  us,  but  I  found  that  it  had 
reached  the  top  of  the  gap  through  which  we  passed  the  Ragged  Mountains 
to  the  Southern  Eailway.  Seeing  it  growing  on  waste  places  by  the  hard 
roadside  and  among  the  rocks,  I  concluded  that  a  plant  that  could  thus  spread 
itself  was  a  good  thing  for  my  waste  land.  I  sent  to  Louisiana,  where  there 
were  parties  saving  the  seed,  and  bought  some.  This  was  sown  in  the  early 
spring,  all  among  the  broomsedge  on  the  rocky  hillside.  Only  this  and 
nothing  more.  The  land  was  fenced  and  the  cows  went  there  at  night  only 
after  being  pastured,  and  fed  in  the  stable  at  milking  time.  By  the  next 
winter  there  was  no  more  broomsedge  on  that  hillside.  The  Japan  clover 
had  complete  possession  and  I  had  a  pasture  for  the  summer  worth  far  more. 
And  not  only  this,  but  with  the  droppings  of  the  cows  which  were  scattered 
over  the  land,  and  the  cows  really  ate  very  little  there  during  the  night,  the 
white  clover  made  its  appearance,  and  the  mountain  blue  grass  (Poa  Com- 
pressa)  came  in,  and  by  the  next  year  I  had  a  pasture  without  broomsedge 
and  composed  of  far  better  plants.  Not  being  too  closely  pastured  the  herb- 
age increased  and  today  that  hillside  is  as  good  a  permanent  pasture  as  one 
will  find  anywhere  in  a  similar  situation.  It  could  have  been  improved  by 
an  annual  topdressing  of  raw  bone,  and  I  know  of  no  dressing  for  the  perma- 
nent pasture  that  so  completely  fills  the  bill  as  raw  bone  meal.  The  slow- 
ness with  which  its  phosphoric  acid  becomes  available  is  an  advantage  in  such 
a  situation,  and  the  nitrogen  to  be  found  in  a  good  sample  will  encourage 
at  once  the  growth  of  the  herbage.  On  one  occasion,  on  a  visit  to  the  Mis- 
sissippi Agricultural  College,  I  was  shown  a  field  distant  from  the  barn, 
where  there  were  fifty  fat  beeves.  The  land  was  the  thin,  worn-out,  red-clay 
hill  land  to  be  seen  all  over  the  South,  and  there  was  absolutely  no  growth 
on  it  except  the  Japan  clover  an  inch  or  two  high.  The  cattle  were  in  fine 
order,  and  I  was  told  that  they  were  not  fed  anything  besides  the  Japan 
clover  they  were  grazing  upon.  Evidently  here  was  the  plant  to  cover  the 
waste  lands  of  the  South.  Not  a  plant  that  can  be  profitably  taken  into  a 
rotation  on  cultivated  land,  but  a  plant  to  make  a  pasture  where  none  was 
before,  and  which  would  reproduce  itself  year  after  year  and  grow  better 
while  doing  it.  While  not  to  be  advised  on  lands  that  can  be  plowed  and 
prepared  for  grasses  it  is  evident  that  for  lands  where  nothing  else  can  grow, 
the  Japan  clover  will  prove  a  valuable  pasture  plant.  If  the  hills  are  then 
pastured  with  sheep  there  will  gradually  be  an  incoming  of  better  herbage, 
till  these  washed  and  gullied  hills  become  clothed  with  grass  and  flocks. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

FERTILIZERS  WHERE  HAY  IS  THE  MONEY  CROP. 

There  are  many  who  will  hold  up  their  hands  with  horror  at  the  idea  of 
selling  hay  off  the  farm.  Of  course  there  are  few  who  are  so  located  that 
they  can  make  hay  the  most  profitable  money  crop,  but  where  a  man  is  so 
located  that  he  can  make  more  money  in  selling  hay  than  in  feeding  it  on  the 
farm,  there  is  no  good  reason  why  he  should  not  sell  hay  as  well  as  any  other 
crop  he  grows.  A  crop  of  timothy  removes  in  each  ton  25.2  pounds  of  nitro- 
gen, 10.6  pounds  of  phosphoric  acid  and  18  pounds  of  potash.  A  crop  of 
wheat  of  20  bushels  per  acre  will  remove  28.32  pounds  of  nitrogen,  10.68 
pounds  of  phosphoric  acid  and  7.32  pounds  of  potash,  in  the  grain  alone; 
which  is  the  only  part  usually  sold  from  the  farm.  The  manurial  constitu- 
ents of  a  ton  of  timothy  can  be  replaced  in  the  form  of  commercial  fertilizer 
for  a  little  over  $5.  Then  if  the  farmer  cannot  realize  more  from  the  feed- 
ing of  the  hay  than  the  market  value  of  hay  on  the  farm,  he  had  better 
sell  the  hay  and  buy  the  fertilizers,  especially  as  we  have  shown  that  in  a 
proper  system  of  rotation  he  will  not  need  to  buy  the  nitrogen,  which  is  more 
than  half  the  manurial  value  of  the  timothy.  But,  says  one,  the  manure  is 
a  profit,  even  if  the  feeding  does  not  return  more  than  the  market  value  of 
the  hay  on  the  farm.  It  is  true  that  a  careful  saving  of  the  manure  may 
recover  a  large  part  of  the  manurial  value  of  the  hay,  but  when  the  labor 
of  caring  for  the  stock  is  taken  into  the  account,  and  the  great  labor  of  hand- 
ling the  manure  over  that  required  for  the  commercial  fertilizers,  it  will  be 
seen  that  this  apparent  profit  is  really  made  at  a  loss.  Of  course,  as  we  have 
said  before,  we  consider  that  the  feeding  of  stock  and  the  making  and  saving 
of  the  manure  lies  at  the  very  foundation  of  successful  farming  in  most 
places;  still,  we  believe  in  farming  for  profit,  and  we  could  never  see  the 
reason  for  a  farmer  making  a  sort  of  fetich  of  a  manure  pile,  and  spending 
more  feed  and  labor  on  its  accumulation  than  the  accumulation  is  worth. 
We  believe  in  applying  common  business-like  sense  to  all  the  operations  of 
the  farm,  and  in  localities  where  it  pays  better  to  sell  the  timothy  than  to' 
feed  it,  I  would  by  all  means  sell  the  hay,  and  depend  on  fertilizers  and 
legumes  to  keep  up  the  fertility  of  the  soil. 

(137) 


138 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 


FARMING  FOR  HAY. 


But  farming  for  hay  does  not  mean  running  the  land  in  meadow  till 
it  will  hardly  produce  any  hay  worthy  the  name.  A  moderately  short  rota- 
tion is  as  good  for  the  hay  crop  as  for  any  other,  and  the  growing  of  a  legume 
crop  is  just  as  important  as  in  a  rotation  for  grain  or  cotton.  Whatever 
the  crop,  the  rotation  should  be  planned  so  as  to  give  that  crop  the  best  oppor- 
tunity in  the  rotation.  Hence,  in  a  rotation  for  grass,  the  grass  should  come 
in  when  the  soil  is  best  supplied  with  the  nitrogen  accumulated  by  the  legume 
crop.  In  the  Upper  South,  this  legume  crop  should  be  the  cow  pea,  and  the 
best  crop  to  seed  down  to  clover  and  grass  will  be  the  winter  oats  crop,  follow- 
ing corn  among  which  the  peas  have  been  sown. 

The  corn  will  have  had  all  the  manure  accumulation  possible  on  the 
farm,  and  the  oats  will  get  some  benefit  from  this  and  more  from  the  peas, 
and  hence  will  need  a  good  dressing  of  acid  phosphate  and  potash  as  much 
for  the  clover  and  grass  as  for  the  oats.  Seed  to  clover  and  grass  with  the 
oats  in  the  fall,  mow  the  oats  stubble  after  the  rag  weeds  start  in  the  sum- 
mer, and  the  following  spring  give  the  clover  and  grass  a  dressing  of  freshly 
water-slaked  lime  at  rate  of  20  bushels  per  acre.  Mow  two  seasons,  and 
the  second  season  in  the  early  spring  give  a  top  dressing  of  nitrate  of  soda 
and  acid  phosphate,  50  pounds  of  the  first  and  200  of  the  last  per  acre.  In 
the  South,  orchard  grass  and  tall  meadow  oat  grass  should  take  the  place  of 
timothy,  which  does  not  thrive  well  here.  After  the  first  cutting  of  hay  the 
second  year  plow  the  sod  and  sow  in  peas  again.  Cut  these  peas  for  hay  to 
feed  on  the  farm,  and  during  the  winter  get  all  the  manure  out  on  the  stubble 
for  the  corn  crop  the  following  year.  Wheat  may,  of  course,  take  the  place 
of  the  winter  oats  where  more  profitable.  This  is  only  adapted  to  the  upper 
country  of  the  South  and  not  to  the  cotton  belt,  where  hay  making  from 
grass  can  hardly  be  made  a  profitable  part  of  the  farm  rotation,  and  where 
the  legumes  will  be  of  more  value  on  the  arable  lands  than  meadow  grasses. 

But  in  the  North,  and  near  the  large  cities,  where  hay  from  timothy 
grass  is  always  in  demand  at  fair  prices,  and  where  the  farmer  will  haul 
his  own  hay  to  market,  he  can  always  haul  home  the  manurial  value  of  the  hay 
either  in  the  city  manure,  or  fertilizers,  at  a  considerable  profit  in  the  trans- 
action. There,  a  four  or  five  year  rotation,  with  corn,  wheat,  clover  and  tim- 
othy will  usually  be  the  best.  Of  course  he  will  keep  some  stock,  but  he  will 
jnake  the  best  use  of  the  commercial  fertilizers  in  the  production  of  his  hay. 
Even  with  the  best  of  management  it  will  be  found  at  times  that  it  will  pay 
the  hay  farmer  to  buy  some  nitrogen,  in  the  form  of  nitrate  of  soda,  for  a 
spring  dressing,  and  it  will  usually  be  found  that  the  most  profitable  use  he 


Fertilizers  Where  Hay  is  the  Money  Crop — 139 

can  make  of  his  manure  accumulation  will  be  on  the  sod  that  is  to  go  into  corn 
the  following  year,  after  mowing  the  spring  crop.  This  will  give  a  good 
second  crop  and  will  prepare  the  sod  better  for  the  corn.  Getting  a  good 
price  for  hay,  it  will  pay  him  to  be  liberal  with  the  top  dressings  of  com- 
mercial fertilizers,  and,  for  a  rank  growth  of  grass,  nitrogen  in  the  imme- 
diately available  form  of  nitrate  of  soda  will  usually  be  found  the  cheapest 
and  best.  Farming  for  hay  does  not  diifer  from  farming  for  grain  in  the 
need  of  keeping  up  the  productivity  of  the  land  through  fertilizers  and  a 
good  rotation,  and  under  the  conditions  we  have  named,  hay  farming  may 
be  the  most  profitable  method  of  farming  that  one  can  adopt;  while  under 
the  conditions  prevailing  in  most  parts  of  the  country,  and  on  cheap  lands, 
the  rule  to  feed  all  coarse  forage  on  the  farm  is  a  good  one.  We  have  simply 
endeavored  to  show  that  one  may  be  so  situated  that  hay  will  be  the  best 
money  crop  he  can  grow. 

Then,  too,  there  are  places  where  the  straw  on  the  farm  commands  a 
better  price  at  the  paper  mills  than  hay  sells  for  in  most  places.  The  straw 
has  little  manurial  or  feeding  value,  being  mainly  useful  as  an  absorbent 
of  the  manure.  Then,  where  a  man  can  sell  wheat  straw  for  $6  per  ton,  as 
is  done  in  some  places,  he  can  do  better  to  sell  it  than  to  feed  it,  provided  he 
returns  the  value  in  plant  food  to  the  soil.  In  that  case  the  soil  will  be 
the  gainer,  as  the  wheat  straw  has  no  such  fertilizing  value. 

One  of  the  greatest  advantages  the  market  gardeners  on  the  South 
Atlantic  coast  have  is  the  ease  with  which  they  can  grow  a  large  crop  of  hay 
the  same  season  in  which  they  cultivate  the  land  in  vegetables.  Crab  grass, 
which  is  classed  as  a  pest  in  the  North  and  elsewhere,  develops  here  a  value 
that  is  unsuspected  elsewhere.  On  the  moist  and  fertile  lands  where  the 
early  truck  is  produced  for  the  Northern  markets,  if  the  land  is  simply 
put  in  good  order  after  the  early  truck  crops  are  removed,  there  comes  in  a 
wonderful  volunteer  crop  of  crab  grass,  which  attains  a  height  and  luxuri- 
ance unknown  elsewhere  and  often  cuts  two  tons  per  acre  of  excellent  hay. 
It  is  curious  to  notice,  too,  that  not  only  the  size  of  the  crop  is  increased  on 
these  fertile  lands,  but  the  quality  of  the  feed  is  also  improved.  Crab  grass 
hay  from  a  poor  piece  of  land  is  hardly  worth  the  saving.  A  friend  in  South 
Carolina  once  told  me  that  he  cut  some  crab  grass  from  a  thin  piece  of  land, 
thinking  that  it  should  be  saved,  and  a  little  later  he  cut  a  heavy  crop  from 
a  truck  patch  and  put  it  into  the  same  barn.  His  horse  thrived  well  on  this, 
but  later  on  he  suddenly  found  his  horse  was  falling  off,  though  fed  as  usual, 
and  he  found  that  they  had  gotten  down  on  the  poor  land  hay  and  that  it 
would  hardly  support  life.  But  the  true  hay  crop  for  the  market  gardens, 
as  it  is  elsewhere  in  the  South,  is  the  cow  pea.     Sown  after  the  truck  crops 


140 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

are  off  it  makes  a  wonderful  growth  on  the  rich  soil,  and  has  with  it  a  great 
mixture  of  the  crab  grass  that  will  not  down,  and  the  two  together  are  more 
easily  cured  than  the  peas  alone.  If  there  is  a  man  anywhere  who  can  afford 
to  sell  hay,  it  is  the  Southern  farmer  with  cow  pea  hay;  for,  in  selling  it, 
he  leaves  behind  in  the  soil  an  accumulation  of  nitrogen  for  the  succeeding 
crop,  and  where  it  commands  the  price  it  did  last  summer  in  South  Carolina, 
of  $18  per  ton,  it  may  pay  better  to  sell  than  to  feed,  provided  the  money 
from  the  sale  of  the  pea  vine  hay  is  returned  to  the  soil  in  the  form  of  com- 
mercial fertilizers,  to  enable  it  to  grow  a.  larger  crop  of  hay.  And  the  ad- 
vantage in  the  growing  of  cow  pea  hay  for  sale  is  that  only  the  mineral  forms 
of  fertilizers  are  needed  for  it,  and,  not  like  grass,  demanding  large  supplies 
of  nitrogen.  Hence  it  is  possible  in  the  South,  in  particular  localities  where 
hay  commands  these  high  prices,  for  a  farmer  to  profitably  grow  a  hay  crop 
while  improving  his  land  in  doing  it,  and  thus  get  fertilizers  for  all  his  crops 
without  cost.  I  say  this  is  possible  in  some  localities,  but  as  a  rule  the  South 
needs  live  stock  worse  than  anything  else,  and  only  a  few  farmers  will  be 
situated  near  a  market  that  will  take  their  hay.  Right  here  there  could  be  a 
good  profit  made  in  this  way,  since,  in  the  city  of  Raleigh,  the  people  who 
keep  cows  are  reduced  to  the  necessity  of  buying  either  Northern  timothy  hay 
at  $20  per  ton,  or  to  feed  on  cotton  seed  hulls  at  $5  per  ton,  and  these  are 
perhaps  a-  little  better  than  the  pine  shavings,  but  not  much ;  and  for  the 
milch  cows  the  timothy  hay  is  but  little  better  and  much  more  costly.  It 
would  be  an  easy  matter  here  to  grow  two  tons  per  acre  of  cow  pea  hay,  and 
then  an  easy  matter  to  sell  it  at  at  least  $15  per  ton,  and  if  the  $30  per  acre 
were  invested  in  good  fertilizers  for  the  farm,  the  sale  crops  could  be  greatly 
increased,  by  the  fact  that  only  the  cheaper  forms  need  be  bought,  as  the  sale 
crop  of  hay  would  leave  the  nitrogen  as  a  profit.  Where  a  man,  then,  is 
growing  cotton  near  such  a  market  for  hay,  and  will  not  keep  the  stock  he 
should,  this  opens  a  way  for  the  improvement  of  his  soil  in  an  effective  and 
economical  way.  The  danger  in  all  this  selling  of  hay,  however,  lies  in  the 
temptation  to  keep,  for  other  purposes,  the  money  received  and  to  let  the  land 
suffer.  But  a  ton  of  cow  pea  hay  would  remove  from  the  land  only  about 
two  dollars^  worth  of  phosphoric  acid  and  potash,  and  a  sale  of  thirty  dollars' 
worth  of  hay,  if  invested  in  fertilizers,  would  return  to  the  farm  far  more 
than  was  taken  from  it,  to  take  no  account  of  what  remains  in  the  roots  left 
in  the  soil.  While  the  selling  of  hay  as  a  general  practice  is  not  the  best 
thing  most  farmers  can  do,  it  is,  nevertheless,  true  that  farming  is  business 
and  not  a  sentiment;  and  the  farmer  should  grow  and  sell  that  which  pays 
him  best,  taking  the  future  of  the  soil  into  consideration. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

WHERE  TOBACCO  IS  THE  MONEY  CROP, 

The  traveler  from  the  North,  passing  through  the  upper  country  of  Vir- 
ginia and  North  Carolina,  and  seeing  everywhere  the  old,  worn  fields  growing 
up  in  pines,  is  apt  to  jump  to  the  conclusion  that  tobacco  is  responsible  for 
all  this  waste  of  fertility.  Indirectly,  of  course,  it  is,  but  there  is  no  more 
reason  why  tobacco  should  result  in  soil  exhaustion  from  its  growing  than 
any  other  crop.  But  Northern  farmers  coming  South  rarely  want  to  engage 
in  the  culture  of  either  tobacco  or  cotton,  as  they  charge  the  poverty  of  the 
Southern  soils  to  these  crops,  and  overlook  the  fact  that  bad  farming  and  not 
the  particular  crop,  is  responsible  for  the  waste  lands  and  the  old  fields. 
Tobacco,  more  than  than  any  other  crop  grown,  is  affected  by  the  soil  and 
climate  in  which  it  is  grown,  and  tobacco  growers  in  all  parts  of  the  country 
have  learned  what  sorts  of  tobacco  are  best  adapted  to  their  soils  and  cli- 
mates. These  differences  in  the  varieties  of  tobacco  grown  have  been  the 
result  of  long  experience  and  study,  by  cultivators,  of  the  capacities  of  the 
various  soils,  and  no  one  can  afford  to  ignore  the  results,  or  to  try  to  grow  a 
variety  on  a  certain  soil  that  has  not  been  found  suited  to  it.  The  growers 
of  the  Zimmer  Spanish,  in  Ohio,  are  too  wise  to  try  to  grow  the  gold  leaf 
tobacco  which  the  North  Carolina  farmers  use,  and  the  North  Carolina  farm- 
ers are  too  wise  to  waste  time  on  the  White  Burley  of  Kentucky  or  the  black 
tobacco  of  the  Virginia  Peidmont  country.  The  growers  of  Connecticut 
seed  leaf  would  only  lose  money  by  endeavoring  to  grow  plug  manufacturing 
tobacco.  In  some  sections  of  the  tobacco  growing  parts  of  the  country  the 
growers  insist  that  a  systematic  course  of  improvement  of  the  soil  would  be 
disastrous  to  the  quality  of  the  tobacco  they  grow.  This  is  largely  the  case 
in  the  bright,  cigarette  tobacco  section  of  North  Carolina,  and  the  growers 
generally  adhere  to  the  practice  of  growing  tobacco  solely  by  the  use  of  a 

(141) 


142 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

moderate  amount  of  fertilizers,  insisting  that  a  heavier  fertilization  made 
the  tobacco  coarser  and  later.  Some  years  since  a  grower  in  one  of  the 
tobacco  counties  in  North  Carolina,  wrote  to  me  asking  for  a  formula  for  a 
tobacco  fertilizer,  as  he  knew  that  I  had  been  conducting  a  series  of  very  ex- 
tensive experiments  in  the  fertili^tion  of  this  crop.  I  gave  him  the  follow- 
ing formula,  and  advised  him  to  use  700  pounds  of  the  mixture  per  acre. 
Acid  phosphate,  900  pounds;  dried  blood,  600  pounds;  nitrate  of  soda,  100 
pounds,  and  high  grade  sulphate  of  potash,  400  pounds.  He  took  my  advice, 
and  when  his  crop  was  marketed  sent  me  the  report  of  the  commission  mer- 
chant who  sold  it,  showing  that  his  tobacco  brought  the  highest  average  price 
of'  the  season.  Soon  after-  this  a  man  from  the  same  county  wrote  to  me  for 
a  formula,  and  I  gave  him  the  same.  He  wrote  me  that  700  pounds  was  an 
amount  entirely  too  large  and  could  not  possibly  make  fine  tobacco.  I  sent 
him  the  report  of  the  man  from  his  own  county  who  wrote  me  that  his  suc- 
cess was  so  marked  that  he  intended  to  increase  the  quantity  of  fertilizer. 

There  is  a  widespread  impression  among  the  growers  of  bright  tobacco 
that  the  use  of  peas  or  clover  on  their  lands  is  detrimental  to  the  quality  of 
the  tobacco.  I  believe  this  to  be  an  error,  and  believe  that  the  development 
of  the  fertility  of  any  soil  will  enable  the  grower  to  grow  a  larger  crop  of  the 
same  tobacco  for  which  his  soil  has  been  found  suited.  In  one  of  the  eastern 
counties  of  North  Carolina,  some  years  ago  at  a  Farmers'  Institute,  I  advo- 
cated the  use  of  the  cow  pea  as  a  preparatory  crop  for  tobacco.  The  growers 
objected,  and  said  that  they  had  always  understood  that  peas  would  spoil 
the  quality  of  the  leaf.  Two  years  after  that  I  was  again  in  the  same  county 
holding  an  Institute,  and  stopped  over  night  at  the  residence  of  the  largest 
tobacco  grower  in  the  country.  To  my  surprise  I  found  that  he  not  only  had 
every  vacant  spot  on  the  plantation  covered  with  peas,  but  was  planting  a  hill 
of  peas  between  every  hill  of  tobacco  as  soon  as  the  priming  off  began ;  tobacco 
there  being  cured  by  pulling  the  leaves  as  they  ripen  and  not  cutting  the 
whole  plant,  so  that  by  the  time  the  crop  was  gathered  he  had  a  luxuriant 
field  of  peas  to  enrich  the  land.  The  land  then  in  peas  was  to  be  planted  in 
tobacco  the  next  year,  while  corn  took  most  of  the  tobacco  land  with  its 
growth  of  peas,  to  be  followed  by  winter  oats,  and  these  by  peas  again  for 
tobacco.  The  appearance  of  his  150  acres  of  tobacco  fully  warranted  the 
success  of  the  practice.  In  the  upper  Piedmont  country  of  Virginia,  the 
farmers  have  been  very  successful  in  the  growing  of  a  black  wrapper 
tobacco,  by  practicing  a  rotation  on  the  land  where  they  grew  tobacco, 
different  from  that  part  of  the  farm  where  they  grew  most  of  their  corn  and 
other  grain.  On  their  tobacco  land  they  practice  a  three  year  rotation  of 
clover,  tobacco  and. wheat,  and  use  no  fertilizer  whatever;  depending  entirely 


Where  Tobacco  is  the  Money  Crop — 143 

on  the  clover  for  the  tobacco  crop,  no  clover  being  cut  and  no  pasturing  done 
on  it.  They  have  found  that  on  their  deep,  red-clay  soil  this  rotation  has 
been  a  great  success.  One  grower  wrote  that  his  wheat  crop  averaged  28 
bushels  per  acre  and  his  tobacco  cleared  him  $145  per  acre.  How  long  such 
a  rotation  can  be  successfully  run  it  is  hard  to  say.  Their  soil  in  that  section 
is  very  rich  in  potash,  in  the  form  of  a  silicate,  which  is  gradually  made 
available  by  the  carbonic  acid  of  the  rainfall  and  the  humus  which  they  so 
lavishly  grow  in  the  clover;  and  as  the  tobacco  crop  makes  a  light  draft  on 
the  phosphoric  acid  of  the  sod  and  the  clover  furnishes  large  amounts  of  nitro- 
gen, it  may  be  a  long  time  before  they  will  need  a  change.  But  the  wheat 
straw  is  being  used  to  help  the  manure  pile  which  is  used  on  other  parts  of 
the  farm,  and  the  land  will  probably  ere  long  show  an  acidity  that  will  make 
it  "clover  sick."  I  have  advised  one  of  these  growers  that  I  am  satisfied  that 
his  rotation  can  be  improved  by  cutting  the  clover  for  hay,  using  a  good  dress- 
inng  of  acid  phosphate  on  the  wheat,  and  then  using  the  manure  (made  from 
feeding  the  clover  hay)  on  the  sod  before  turning  it  for  tobacco.  A  heavy  ap- 
plication of  acid  phosphate  to  the  tobacco  crop  direct,  might  have  a  bad  effect 
on  making  the  leaf  "bony"  or  thick-veined,  but  applied  to  the  wheat  and 
clover  it  would  not  have  any  bad  effect  on  the  tobacco.  In  Lower  Virginia, 
where  the  heavy  shipping  tobacco  is  mainly  grown,  a  similar  rotation  would 
be  good.  But  there  it  would  be  advisable  to  use  both  acid  phosphate  and 
potash  liberally  on  their  lands,  and  in  some  sections  to  substitute  peas  for 
clover  in  the  rotation.  I  would  not  make  a  separate  rotation  for  the  tobacco 
lands,  from  that  practiced  on  the  rest  of  the  farm,  but  would  put  corn  and 
tobacco  in  parts  of  the  same  field;  alternating  their  position  in  each  round 
of  the  rotation.  Thus,  corn  and  tobacco  the  first  year,  the  corn  to  have  the 
manurial  accumulation  of  the  farm,  and  the  tobacco  liberally  supplied  with 
the  fertilizer  mixed  by  the  formula  already  given.  CoriT  and  tobacco  both  to 
be  followed  by  winter  oats  or  wheat,  with  300  pounds  per  acre  of  acid  phos- 
phate, and  on  the  portion  following  corn  to  have  50  pounds  per  acre  of  muri- 
ate of  potash  added.  The  wheat  or  oats  on  the  part  where  tobacco  was 
heavily  fertilized  will  need  a  much  lighter  dressing  of  the  acid  phosphate. 
Sow  crimson  clover  on  the  stubble  after  harvest,  and  the  following  spring 
plow  it  under  and  seed  to  peas  to  be  cut  for  hay.  During  the  winter  get  out 
all  the  manure  on  the  part  intended  for  corn,  where  tobacco  grew  before,  and 
repeat  the  rotation;  in  each  round  putting  corn  where  tobacco  grew  in  the 
last  round  and  tobacco  where  the  corn  grew.  Treated  in  this  way,  and  a 
complete  fertilizer  used  liberally  on  the  tobacco,  the  peas  and  corn  fed  to 
stock  to  make  manure,  the  productive  capacity  of  the  soil  will  rapidly  in- 
crease; and  the  wheat  crop  can  soon  be  grown  without  additional  fertilizer 


144 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

if  manure  enough  is  raised  to  cover  the  corn  tend.  While  the  demands  of 
the  tobacco  crop  for  nitrogen  and  potash  can  only  be  fully  met  by  the  use  of 
a  complete  fertilizer,  we  should  endeavor  to  lessen  the  amount  needed,  by  the 
growing  of  legumes  and  the  accumulation  of  humus  in  the  soil.  But,  at 
the  same  time,  any  parsimony  in  the  use  of  fertilizers  when  needed  will  result 
in  loss  to  the  tobacco  grower,  since  only  by  the  most  liberal  feeding  can  the 
maximum  crops  in  quality  and  quantity  be  produced.  Hence  the  tobacco  crop, 
instead  of  being  an  impoverishment  to  the  farm,  can  be  made,  by  the  sys- 
te.matic  rotation  of  crops  and  the  liberal  application  of  fertilizers,  the  means 
for  its  rapid  improvement. 

FORMS  OF  FERTILIZERS  FOR  TOBACCO. 

While  heavy  fertilization  is  needed  for  the  tobacco  crop,  there  is  no  crop 
more  sensitive  to  the  shape  in  which  the  plant  food  is  presented  to  it.  Nitro- 
gen and  potash  are  its  chief  needs.  But  it  is  not  merely  potash  that  is 
needed,  for  it  is  essential  that  it  be  free  from  chlorides ;  hence  only  the  high 
grade  sulphate  should  be  used.  The  muriate  will  make  a  heavier  crop,  but 
a  crop  of  inferior  value,  and,  in  fact,  a  crop  worthless  for  manufacturing 
where  it  is  to  be  burned  in  pipe,  cigarette  or  cigar.  A  year  or  so  ago  I  gave 
the  tobacco  formula,  already  printed,  to  a  farmer  in  the  bright  tobacco  belt 
of  North  Carolina.  He  wrote  afterwards  that  his  crop  was  of  very  poor 
quality,  and  he  wanted  to  know  what  was  the  matter  with  the  fertilizer.  He 
bought  the  materials  from  a  large  firm  of  fertilizer  makers  in  Norfolk,  and 
he  sent  me  their  bill.  Where  I  had  designated  high  grade  sulphate  of  potash 
they  had  put  in  low  grade,  or  kainit.  In  the  bill  was  charged  **^sulphate  of 
potash,^'  and  then,  in  small  letters  in  bracket,  "kainit.^^  It  was  evidently 
done  for  the  purpose  of  disgusting  the  farmer  with  home  mixed  fertilizers, 
for  any  manufacturer  knows  that  kainit  should  never  be  used  in  a  tobacco 
fertilizer.     The  cause  of  the  poor  quality  of  his  tobacco  was  plain. 

Then,  too,  the  form  in  which  the  nitrogen  is  presented  is  of  some  im- 
portance. We  have  found  that  a  moderate  amount  of  nitrate  of  soda,  as  a 
starter,  and  a  good  supply  of  organic  nitrogen  in  the  form  of  dried  blood, 
have  given  better  results  than  cotton  seed  meal  or  fish  scrap.  Fish  scrap  is 
apt  to  contain  some  chlorides,  and  is  objectionable.  Tankage  might  do  if 
it  was  pure  meat  tankage  and  not  largely  mixed  with  bone ;  but  the  character 
of  the  tankage  is  too  uncertain  for  reliance.  Any  excess  of  phosphoric  acid 
tends  to  render  the  tobacco  "bony,"  as  it  is  called,  or  thick  veined,  with  a 
thin,  papery  leaf,  lacking  body.  The  formula  we  have  given  is  the  result 
of  long  study  and  experimentation  with  various  mixtures,  and  we  believe  it 


Where  Tobacco  is  the  Money  Crop — 145 

can  hardly  be  improved  upon.  The  full  amount  of  700  pounds  per  acre  will 
probably  not  be  needed  where  a  systematic  rotation  is  practiced,  and  do  not 
let  any  story  of  the  injurious  effects  of  clover  or  peas  deter  you  from  their 
use  as  preparatory  crops  to  tobacco.  The  story  of  their  injurious  effects  has 
been  handed  down,  and  accepted  as  a  fact,  by  those  too  ready  to  get  an  excuse 
for  bad  farming.  Some  peanut  growers  have  the  same  prejudice  against 
the  legumes,  probably  because  someone  sometime  had  a  poor  crop  after  a  crop 
of  peas,  and  at  once  the  word  went  out  that  peas  are  destructive  to  peanuts; 
and  the  tale  has  been  believed  by  men  too  lazy  to  investigate  for  themselves. 
Many  moDe  of  the  old  wives'  tales  in  farming  have  grown  up  in  the  same  way. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

FERTILIZERS  FOR  THE  CORN  CROP. 

While,  like  tobacco,  the  chief  food  needs  of  the  Indian  corn  plant  are 
nitrogen  and  potash,  and  a  complete  fertilizer  will  always  produce  a  great 
increase  in  the  crop,  we  have  never  yet  made  an  experiment  in  which  the  in- 
creased crop  paid  for  the  outlay  in  fertilizer  at  the  usual  price  for  corn.  In- 
asmuch as  the  larger  part  of  the  cost  of  the  complete  fertilizer  is  in  the  nitro- 
gen, it  may  be  practicable  to  profitably  use  a  commercial  fertilizer  on  the 
corn  crop  if  the  nitrogen  needed  is  supplied  from  legumes  or  manure  made 
at  home,  and  only  acid  phosphate  and  potash  are  used  in  the  mixture  applied. 
Indian  corn  is  one  of  the  essentials  in  any  rotation  in  American  agriculture, 
from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Gulf.  It  is  the  chief  of  all  feed  crops  grown 
in  this  country,  and  lies  at  the  very  foundation  of  all  of  our  national  success 
in  the  production  of  beef  and  pork.  We  hear  a  great  deal  of  wise  talk  about 
the  "great  corn  belt,''  and  some  seem  to  suppose  that  success  with  the  corn 
crop  is  confined  to  the  area  included  in  the  black  prairie  lands  of  Illinois, 
Missouri,  Iowa  and  Kansas,  and  nothing  is  more  common  than  to  hear  poor 
farmers  excuse  themselves  by  saying  that  it  is  no  longer  possible,  in  the  East, 
to  compete  with  the  Western  farmer,  in  the  production  of  corn  or  wheat. 
The  fact  is  that  good  farmers  all  along  the  Middle  and  South  Atlantic  coast 
are  growing  as  good  corn  and  wheat  crops  as  the  Western  farmers,  and  at  a 
better  profit,  because  of  their  nearness  to  the  great  markets.  In  the 
wheat  growing  section  of  Eastern  Maryland  a  good  farm  rotation  has  brought 
up  the  production  of  wheat  from  10  or  12  bushels  per  acre,  to  35,  40  and 
even  50  bushels  per  acre.  At  the  same  time  the  great  wheat  farms  of  the 
Dakotas  have  decreased  in  productiveness,  for  the  reason  that  one-crop  farm- 
ing will  fail  anywhere.  The  Dakota  wheat  growers  are  as  straight  on  the 
road  to  "old  fields"  as  ever  were  the  tobacco  and  cotton  growers  of  the  South. 
The  exuberant  fertility  of  their  soil  may  delay  the  final  failure,  but  it  will 
surely  come  unless  better  methods  are  used.  Then,  too,  with  the  Indian 
corn  crop.  Recently,  in  Illinois,  premiums  were  awarded  to 
corn  crops  of  55  bushels  per  acre,  while  in  poor  old  Virginia,  North  Carolina 
and  South  Carolina  good  farmers  are  growing  from  80  to  163  bushels  of  corn 
per  acre.     The  greatest  corn  crop  ever  grown,  not,  however,  an  evidence  of 

(146) 


Fertilizers  for  the  Corn  Crop — 147 

good  farming,  but  of  extravagant  expenditure  for  the  result,  was  the  crop 
of  254  bushels  per  acre  grown  in  Marlboro  Co.,  S.  C.  Near  the  ocean,  in 
Southeast  Virginia  and  Northeast  North  Carolina,  there  are  wide  areas  of 
reclaimed  swamp  lands,  on  which  the  owners  have  for  generations  been  grow- 
ing corn  only,  just  as  some  have  been  doing  on  the  black  soils  of  a  similar 
nature  in  Illinois ;  both  have  been  selling  only  corn,  and  sending  off  the  fer- 
tility of  their  lands.  But  most  of  the  farmers  of  the  Illinois  black  lands 
have  discovered  the  profit  to  be  made  in  turning  their  corn  into  beef  and 
pork,  while  the  Southern  coast  farmers,  with  land  just  as  productive  and 
right  at  the  ports  from  which  the  Western  cattle  go  to  Europe,  still  stick  to 
selling  corn,  though  they  could  compete  at  a  great  advantage  with  the  cattle 
feeders  of  the  West. 

But  the  greater  part  of  the  farmers  in  the  country  east  of  the  Mississippi 
River,  are  farming  under  conditions  which  make  it  essential  that  some  syste- 
matic method  be  used  for  keeping  up  and  increasing  the  productiveness  of 
their  lands,  in  corn  as  well  as  in  other  crops. 

HOW  SHALL  WE  UTILIZE  THE   CORN  CROP  AS  A  FOOD  CROP? 

Since  in  the  case  of  far  the  greater  number  of  farmers  in  the  East  the 
corn  crop  is  not  produced  as  a  sale  crop  of  grain,  but  as  a  means  for  feeding 
stock,  and  through  this  to  raise  manure  for  their  crops,  while  making  a 
greater  profit  from  the  stock  fed  than  they  could  possibly  get  from  the  sale 
of  the  grain,  the  question  of  the  best  method  of  utilizing  the  corn  crop  on  the 
farm  becomes  a  matter  of  prime  importance.  The  great  labor  of  gathering 
the  grain  and  saving  the  stover  as  dry  food  has  led  to  many  experiments  for 
economizing  the  labor  and  putting  the  crop  into  better  shape  for  feeding. 

THE  SILO  AND  ENSILAGE. 

No  method  for  the  utilization  of  the  entire  corn  crop  as  food  for  stock 
has  ever  been  devised  that  has  equalled  the  cutting  of  the  matured  crop,  while 
still  succulent,  and  storing  it  in  air-tight  receptacles  known  as  silos.  A  work 
devoted  to  the  feeding  of  plants  would  not  be  complete  without  some  con- 
sideration of  this  great  method  of  making  the  corn  crop  one  of  the  greatest 
of  fertilizing  crops  grown  on  the  farm,  and  removing  it  from  being  an  ex- 
haustive crop  merely,  to  one  of  the  greatest  of  crops  for  the  building  up  and 
increasing  the  productiveness  of  the  farm,  through  enabling  the  farmer  to 
feed  more  stock  than  was  possible  under  the  old  plan.  Having  had  a  wide 
experience  in  the  making  of  silage,  from  the  first  experimental  stages  to  the 
present  more  perfect  method,  the  writer  feels  qualified  to  speak  with  some 


148 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

certainty  of  the  results  to  be  attained  through  the  practice  of  ensiloing  the 
corn  crop.  There  has  been  a  great  evolution  going  on,  not  only  in  the  pro- 
duction of  the  corn  crop  for  the  silo,"  but  to  a  greater  extent  in  the  silo  itself. 
In  our  first  experiments,  we  sowed  the  corn  so  thickly  that  few  ears  were 
made,  and  the  immature  product  was,  with  the  greatest  haste,  cut  into  great 
underground  pits,  walled  with  cement,  and  constructed  at  a  great  expense. 
It  was  tramped  and  packed  and  made  as  tight  as  possible  in  the  silo,  and 
when  the  pit  was  full,  a  cover  of  a  foot  of  cut  straw  or  chaff  was  placed  over 
the  top,  and  then  a  board  cover  fitted  over  the  whole  and  tons  upon  tons  of 
rock  piled  on  to  further  compact  the  mass.  The  result  was  a  slow  fermenta- 
tion and  a  very  acid  product  from  the  immature  corn  stored.  Doubting  men 
called  it  "saur  kraut,^^  and  properly,  too.  It  was  found  that  the  sour  mass 
was  greedily  eaten  by  the  cows,  but  the  ill  smelling  stuff  gave  the  dairy  product 
a  bad  name  with  some  of  the  establishments  buying  the  milk,  from  which 
some  of  them  have  not  yet  recovered.  A  process,  however,  that  has  in  it  the 
germs  of  good,  cannot  go  backward.  Nothwithstanding  the  fact  that  some 
of  the  best  thinkers  prophesied  that  ensilage  would  soon  be  a  forgotten  fad 
the  evolutionary  process  went  on.  We  soon  came  to  the  conclusion  that  a  bet- 
ter crop  must  first  be  grown,  as  the  foundation  of  the  silage,  and  chemical 
analysis  showed  that  the  stage  in  which  corn  had  the  largest  feeding  value  was 
when  the  ears  were  fully  grown,  and  that  to  make  a  really  good  silage  we  must 
have  a  well  grown  crop  of  corn.  We  began  to  plant  more  thinly  and  to  give 
the  corn  the  same  attention  we  would  to  make  a  crop  of  grain. 

Then  began  the  study  of  methods  and  silos.  We  found  that  on  taking 
off  the  load  of  rocks  and  board  cover,  there  was  a  black,  stinking  mass  of  rot- 
ten straw.  We  got  to  thinking  about  the  reason  for  this  decay,  and  soon  ar- 
rived at  the  conclusion  that  the  shutting  down  of  the  moisture  arising  from 
the  heating  mass,  and  confining  it  right  at  the  surface,  was  a  bad  thing.  We 
cut  our  first  crop  of  well  matured  corn  for  the  silo  in  the  Summer  of  1886. 
The  crop  was  a  very  heavy  one,  and  we  cut  it  in  more  slowly  than  we  had 
ever  done,  often  letting  it  lie  for  24  hours  or  more  to  settle  while  filling. 
When  our  silos  were  full  we  determined  to  make  one  more  big  change,  and 
though  we  knew  everyone  else  was  still  piling  rocks  on  board  covers,  we  boldly 
left  off  all  but  the  cover  of  cut  straw.  The  result  was  our  first  "sweet  ensilage." 
Of  course  there  was  some  acidity,  but,  as  compared  with  the  old  product,  it 
smelled  like  a  good  article  of  New  Orleans  syrup.  Since  then  we  have  never 
put  boards  or  rocks  on  a  silo. 

Next  began  the  study  of  the  silo  itself.  We  found  that  in  an  under- 
ground pit  with  cemented  walls,  there  was  always  a  great  condensation  of 
moisture  on  the  walls,  and  this  damaged  the  ensilage  along  the  sides.     We 


Fertilizers  for  the  Corn  Crop — 149 

found,  too,  that  corn  cut  in  rather  slowly  and  allowed  to  settle  without  much 
packing,  heated  more  rapidly  and  cured  better  than  that  packed  tightly;  as 
the  evolution  of  carbonic  acid  gas  drove  the  air  out  better  than  any  other 
method  we  could  use.  But  the  damage  along  the  walls  bothered  us.  Then, 
too,  it  was  hard  to  persuade  the  farmers  around  that  they  could  make  ensilage 
profitably,  for  they  looked  at  the  pits  we  were  using,  which  cost  thousands 
of  dollars,  and  they  came  to  the  conclusion  that  silage  was  not  for  the  average 
farmer,  since  the  silo  cost  so  much  money.  About  this  time  we  visited 
the  silos  built  by  a  wealthy  cattle  man  in  Southwest  Virginia,  which  were 
simply  made  with  posts  set  in  the  ground  and  sheathed  horizontally  on  the 
inside,  and  then  vertically,  with  dressed  and  matched  stuff,  and  the  gable  ends 
of  the  roof  left  entirely  open.  We  found  that  these  silos  were  keeping  thous- 
ands of  tons  of  silage  in  better  condition  than  ours,  and  at  a  tenth  of  the 
cost  per  ton. 

It  was  evident,  then,  that  the  wooden  silo  above  ground,  with  air-tight 
sides  and  bottom  and  free  ventilation  above,  had  solved  the  whole  question  of 
successfully  ensiloing  corn. 

The  first  improvement  made  in  these  was  to  cut  off  the  corners,  making 
them  somewhat  octagon  in  shape,  as  it  was  found  that  the  corners  were  the 
places  where  it  was  most  difficult  to  exclude  the  air.  This  led  gradually  to 
the  round  silo,  and  finally  to  the  simple  stave  silo  made  like  a  railroad  water 
tank,  but  with  perpendicular  sides,  and  with  windows  one  above  the  other 
for  the  easy  unloading  of  the  building. 

Prof.  J.  H.  Grisdale,  of  the  Dominion  Experimental  Farm,  Canada,  gives 
the  following  table  of  dimensions  and  silage  content  for  stave  silos.  As  35 
pounds  per  day  is  a  fair  average  feed,  it  will  be  easy  from  this  table  to  esti- 
mate the  size  needed  for  the  farm  stock  kept. 


Depth  in  feet. 

Inside  diameter  in  feet. 

15 

16 

17 

18 

19 

20 

21 

22 

28 

24 

20 

58 

66 

75 

84 

94 

104 

115 

126 

138 

150 

21 

62 

71 

80 

90 

100 

111 

123 

135 

147 

161 

22 

67 

76 

86 

96 

107 

119 

131 

144 

158 

172 

^ 

23 

71 

81 

92 

103 

115 

127 

140 

154 

168 

183 

s 

24 

76 

86 

97 

109 

122 

135 

149 

163 

177 

194 

§ 

25 

80 

89 

103 

116 

129 

143 

158 

173 

189 

206 

26 

85 

97 

109 

123 

137 

151 

167 

183 

200 

218 

H 

27 

90 

102 

115 

129 

144 

160 

176 

194 

212 

230 

28 

94 

108 

122 

136 

152 

168 

186 

204 

223 

243 

29 

99 

113 

128 

143 

160 

177 

195 

214 

234 

255 

30 

105 

119 

134 

151 

168 

186 

205 

225 

246 

268 

150 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 


MAKING   THE   ENSILAGE. 


We  frequently  see  statements  in  the  agricultural  papers,  from  men  who 
are  evidently  new  hands  at  ensilage  making,  that  it  is  totally  needless  to  cut 
the  com,  and  that  corn  packed  in  the  silo  uncut  keeps  as  well  as  the  cut.  We 
have  seen  this  uncut  silage,  and  do  not  want  any  of  it.  It  is  false  economy, 
even  if  the  product  was  as  good,  since  to  feed  it  economically  the  food  must 
be  cut,  and  it  is  a  far  harder  job  to  cut  the  fermented  mass  than  to  cut  it 
while  fresh  and  green.  One  brilliant  genius  published  a  statement  that  he 
had  found  it  needless  to  use  a  cutting  machine,  as  he  found  that  if  the  stalks 
were  chopped  in  six-inch  pieces  with  a  hatchet  they  kept  just  as  well.  What 
sort  of  a  mind  the  man  must  have  who  would  put  a  hatchet  in  competition 
with  a  power  cutter  we  cannot  understand.  Cut  the  corn  into  the  silo  in 
inch  pieces,  and  merely  keep  a  hand  in  the  silo  to  keep  it  level  and  to  prevent 
all  the  grain  from  running  to  the  edges.  Cut  when  the  corn  is  fully  in  the 
roasting  ear  stage.  The  harvesting  is  best  done  with  the  binder,  which  cuts 
and  binds  the  stalks  in  a  shape  easily  handled.  Be  in  no  particular  hurry 
about  the  filling,  but  allow  it  to  settle  a  while  at  times.  If  it  rains  no  matter, 
it  will  do  just  as  well  cut  when  wet  as  at  any  other  time.  If  the  corn  is  over 
ripe,  it  is  well  to  spray  it  with  water  as  the  silo  is  being  filled.  In  fact,  if  the 
silo  is  air-tight  at  sides  and  bottom,  and  has  free  ventilation  at  the  top  for  the 
steam  to  pass  off,  it  is  far  easier  to  keep  the  ensilage  than  it  is  to  spoil  it. 


THE  FEEDING  VALUE  OF  ENSILAGE. 

The  storing  of  the  cut  com  in  the  silo  does  not  add  any  value  to  it  as  a 
food  that  it  did  not  already  possess,  but  it  puts  it  into  a  shape  in  which  we  can 
get  the  full  feeding  value  better  than  in  any  other  way,  and  in  a  shape  where 
it  is  succulent  and  palatable  to  the  stock.  On  one  occasion,  when  I  was  en- 
gaged in  cutting  a  fine  growth  of  corn  into  a  silo,  a  neighbor  expressed  the 
opinion  that  I  was  wasting  a  fine  crop  of  corn,  as  he  thought  it  would  make 
at  least  50  bushels  per  acre.  I  showed  him  that  corn  was  rarely  worth  over 
50  cents  per  bushel  there,  and  that  generally  I  could  buy  corn  in  the  Fall 
for  40  cents  per  bushel.  But  putting  my  crop  at  50  cents  per  bushel,  there 
would  be  $25  worth  of  corn  per  acre,  and  the  cutting  of  the  crop  and  husking 
it  out  would  cost  more  than  the  cutting  and  putting  in  the  silo.  There 
would  be  a  great  waste  of  fodder  in  the  field  curing,  and  the  stover  would 
not  be  as  valuable  dry  cured  as  ensiloed,  as  a  large  part  of  the  feeding  value 
would  be  lost.     The  corn  made  me  20  tons  of  silage  per  acre,  which  carefully 


Fertilizers  for  the  Corn  Crop — 151 

conducted  feeding  experiments  had  shown  me  was  worth  $3.00  per  ton  to  my 
cows.  No  one  would  estimate  that  the  feeding  value  of  the  dried  stover 
would  bring  up  the  $25  worth  of  grain  to  the  $60  value  of  the  silage.  Then, 
aside  from  the  actual  feeding  value  of  the  dry  matter  in  the  silage,  its  succu- 
lence and  palatability  added  a  value  which  made  it  equal  to  green  pasturage 
for  the  cattle,  and  which  the  dry  fodder  would  have  entirely  lacked. 


MANURE   FROM   ENSILAGE   FEEDING. 

One  of  the  great  advantages  of  feeding  properly  cut  and  cured  ensilage, 
with  clover  hay  and  cow  peas  to  balance  it,  is  the  great  value  of  the  manurial 
deposit  made,  and  the  fact  that  it  is  in  a  mechanical  condition  that  will 
allow  of  its  being  taken  out  and  spread  at  once  where  wanted.  One  of  the 
greatest  mistakes  made  by  otherwise  good  farmers,  is  the  worship  of  a  dung 
pile,  and  wasting  of  labor  in  turning  and  returning  and  piling  manure,  either 
under  cover  or  outside.  Manure  kept  in  the  barnyard,  covered  or  uncovered, 
is  all  the  time  losing  value.  But  some  will  say  "It  will  lose  if  hauled  out  and 
spread  on  the  surface."  The  fact  is  that  it  does  lose  very  little  when  thus 
spread.  It  dries  out  moisture,  of  course,  but  does  not  lose  a  tithe  of  what 
it  would  lose  in  a  pile,  or  spread  thickly  in  the  barnyard.  The  rains  will 
wash  the  soluble  part  into  the  soil  and  the  soil  will  hold  it,  and  under  the 
surface  cover  the  nitrification  of  organic  matter  will  go  on  rapidly.  An  ex- 
periment was  published  some  years  ago  by  the  New  Hampshire  Station,  which 
showed  that  on  one  plat  manure  was  hauled  out  in  the  Fall  and  spread  on  the 
surface.  On  another  plat  the  manure  was  spread  at  the  same  time  and 
plowed  under  at  once.  On  a  third  plat  the  manure  was  spread  the  following 
spring  and  plowed  under.  All  the  plats  were  then  prepared  and  planted 
to  corn.  The  result  was  that  the  plat  on  which  the  manure  laid  on  the 
surface  all  winter  gave  the  heaviest  crop. 

In  the  South,  on  our  warm  soil  and  in  our  sunny  climate,  the  nearer  we 
can  keep  the  manure  to  the  surface  the  better.  I  have  made  numerous  experi- 
ments in  this  regard,  and  have  always  found  the  best  results  from  having  the 
manure  at  the  surface,  where  it  will  act  as  a  mulch,  rather  than  have  it  below 
in  a  light  soil.  The  difference  is  not  so  marked  in  a  hoed  crop  as  in  the  case 
where  the  manure  is  used  on  fall  sown  grain.  There  it  not  only  acts  as  a 
manure  but  as  a  protective  mulch  in  winter. 

The  silo  favors  the  getting  out  of  manure  rapidly,  before  it  loses  much  of 
its  value,  and  it  returns  a  larger  part  of  the  crop  to  the  soil  in  good  shape, 
than  any  other  method  of  using  the  com  crop. 


152 — Ceop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

shredding  the  fodder  from  corn  crop. 

Our  chief  objection  to  this  is  the  extra  expense  of  handling  the  crop. 
Then,  too,  there  is  no  advantage  for  feeding  in  the  dried  and  cured  corn 
that  the  ensilaged  corn  does  not  possess,  and  there  is  the  temptation  to  sell 
the  grain  instead  of  feeding  it.  Wherever  we  can  add  value  to  a  crop  by 
further  handling  and  feeding  it  is  always  more  profitable  than  selling  the  raw 
product.  For  many  generations  the  South  sold  raw  products  only  and  other 
people  manufactured  their  staple.  The  result  was,  as  it  always  is,  that  a 
people  selling  only  raw  products  never  get  permanently  rich.  Adding  labor 
to  a  product  rapidly  increases  its  value. 

Some  years  ago  I  visited  a  section  of  Nebraska  for  the  purpose  of  study- 
ing the  sugar  beet  industry.  I  talked  there  with  an  old  German  farmer,  who 
was  evidently  a  thrifty  man.  I  asked  him  what  was  the  usual  price  there 
for  corn,  as  corn  seemed  to  be  their  main  reliance  aside  from  little  patches  of 
beets.  He  told  me  that  it  was  then  worth  25  cents  per  bushel.  I  expressed 
the  opinion  that  there  could  be  little  money  in  corn  at  that  price,  and  he 
quickly  replied,  "I  sell  no  corn,  but  my  neighbors  do.  I  feed  all  mine  to  the 
pigs,  and  they  carry  themselves  to  the  depot,  and  I  get  50  cents  per  bushel 
for  my  corn.''  I  told  him  that  he  was  right,  but  that  he  might  do  even  better, 
for  I  noticed  that  at  all  the  grocery  stores  in  the  town  near  him  they  had  no 
bacon  except  that  from  Chicago,  some  of  it  possibly  made  from  his  hogs  and 
sent  back  there  for  sale;  while  I  had  no  doubt  that  well  cured  home-made 
hams  and  bacon,  properly  smoked,  would  meet  a  ready  sale  at  better  prices 
than  the  Chicago  meat,  as  was  certainly  the  case  where  I  lived.  It  evidently 
struck  the  German,  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  he  experimented  in  that  line. 

But  to  return  to  the  shredding  of  the  corn  stover.  I  feel  that  it  is  a 
matter  about  which  I  have  little  business  to  write,  as  I  never  shredded  any 
in  my  life.  But  from  what  I  have  seen  I  feel  confident  that  there  is  in  the 
practice  no  improvement  on  ensilage,  and  a  great  deal  more  labor  involved 
in  the  storing  and  feeding,  and  more  danger  of  loss  in  the  shredded  fodder 
than  in  the  silage. 

But,  nevertheless,  if  T  did  not  use  the  silo,  I  would  certainly  shred  the 
fodder;  as  the  next  best  way  to  get  the  full  feeding  value  of  the  corn  stover. 
What  we  are  after  is  to  feed  in  the  most  economical  way,  and  get  the  best 
returns  for  the  corn  crop.  On  the  fertile  prairies  of  the  West  men  may  per- 
haps profitably  sell  corn  as  a  raw  product,  but  I  am  persuaded  that  in  all 
the  eastern  section  it  is  not  the  best  use  to  make  of  the  corn  crop,  and  that 
we  can  not  only  get  a  larger  price  for  the  corn  in  the  shape  of  animal  pro- 
ducts, but  can  thereby  render  the  corn  crop  one  of  the  greatest  aids  in  restor- 


Fertilizers  for  the  Corn  Crop — 153 

ing  the  fertility  of  our  lands,  and  in  saving  the  need  for  so  lavish  a  purchase 
of  commercial  fertilizers.  For,  while  acknowledging  the  great  value 
of  commercial  fertilizers,  when  intelligently  used,  our  farmers,  particularly 
in  the  South,  need  to  be  taught  true  farm  economy,  and  a  less  wasteful  and 
thoughtless  way  of  using  them. 

Mr.  J.  E.  Wing,  of  Ohio,  during  some  Institute  work  in  Maryland  in 
which  we  were  both  recently  engaged,  told  me  that  he  has  been  perfectly  suc- 
cessful in  stacking  shredded  fodder  in  the  open  air.  This  being  the  case,  the 
matter  of  keeping  shredded  fodder  becomes  much  more  simplified,  and  there 
need  be  no  excuse  that  the  farmer  has  not  barn  room  in  which  to  store  it. 


CHAPTER  XVITL 
TESTING  THE  NEEDS  OF  THE  SOIL, 

Farmers  generally  imagine  that  they  can  have  a  chemical  analysis  of 
their  soil  made,  and  thus  find  out  what  are  its  needs.  Chemists  have  long 
ago  found  out  that  a  soil  analysis  will  be  of  little  use  in  determining  the 
needs  of  the  soil  for  plant  food.  A  soil  may  be  entirely  unproductive,  and 
yet  chemical  analysis  may  show  that  it  has  in  it  all  the  elements  of  fertility; 
but  they  may  be  in  such  an  insoluble  form  that  plants  cannot  get  them. 
Many  have,  therefore,  paid  more  attention  to  the  chemical  composition  of  the 
different  crops,  and  from  these  data  have  tried  to  compound  fertilizers  that 
are  especially  adapted  to  each  crop  grown.  WJiile  this  is  an  advance  over  the 
soil  analysis  it  is  not  really  what  the  farmer  needs  to  know  in  regard  to  his 
particular  soil.  A  certain  crop  may  require  plant  food  in  a  complete  fer- 
tilizer in  certain  proportions,  and  yet  the  farmer  buying  such  a  fertilizer  may 
be  spending  money  needlessly  if  his  soil  is  already  sufficiently  stocked  with 
any  one  of  these  constituents. 

Hence  the  only  way  to  determine  what  the  land  needs  is  to  experiment 
on  the  land  itself.  Plants  in  their  growth  on  the  soil  will  tell  you  what  the 
chemist  cannot  tell.  It  will  tell  you  what  particular  form  of  plant  food  it  is 
deficient  in  and  which  you  have  no  need  for  buying.  Farmers  generally  buy 
fertilizers  according  to  their  commercial  valuation,  and  while  that  may  be 
their  true  value  on  the  market,  the  value  of  the  article  on  their  land  may 
be  a  very  different  thing,  and  they  may  be  spending  money  for  what  they  do 
not  need  and  be  buying  too  little  of  what  they  especially  need.  The  farmer 
can  find  this  out  for  himself,  and  no  one  else  can  tell  him  beforehand.  The 
needs  of  soils  vary  so  greatly,  even  on  the  same  farm,  that  true  farm  economy 
indicates  that  the  farmer  must  be  himself  an  experimenter  in  order  to  dis- 
cover what  no  Experiment  Station  can  discover  for  him.  But  any  of  the 
Experiment  Stations  in  the  various  States  will  readily  help  the  individual 
farmers  in  their  States  in  conducting  these  experiments.     We  would  impress 

(164) 


Testing  the  Needs  of  the  Soil — 155 

the  fact  that  if  the  experiments  are  to  be  of  value,  and  are  to  show  what  you 
want,  they  must  be  conducted  with  the  greatest  care  and  accuracy.  There 
must  be  no  guesswork  in  the  measurement  of  the  plats,  no  guesswork  in  the 
weighing  of  the  fertilizers,  in  the  application  and  complete  mixing  with  the 
soil,  or  in  the  harvesting  and  weighing  of  the  crop.  Guesswork  is  the  bane 
of  much  of  our  American  agriculture,  and  if  the  farmer  is  to  learn  anything 
from  his  experiments  he  must  start  out  with  the  determination  to  leave  no 
room  for  error  which  it  is  possible  for  him  to  avoid.  It  is  better  to  make  the 
experiments  with  some  spring  planted  crop,  since  some  of  the  articles  used, 
such  as  nitrate  of  sodaj  may  not  have  its  full  effect  if  applied  to  a  fall  sown 
crop.  Select  a  level  piece  of  land  which  is  fairly  representative  of  your  farm, 
and  preferably  select  that  which  is  as  nearly  as  possible  the  natural  condition 
of  the  soil  and  not  altered  by  previous  heavy  manurings.  Lay  off  accurately 
a  series  of  plats  204  feet  long  by  10  feet  8  inches  wide.  Make  ten  of  these 
plats  and  leave  an  alley  four  feet  wide  between  each,  to  prevent  the  fertilizer 
from  one  plat  affecting  its  neighboring  plat.  It  is  also  important  that  the 
whole  series  be  level  for  the  same  reason. 

Plats  of  this  size  will  contain  as  nearly  as  practicable,  one-twentieth  of 
an  acre  each.  Place  firm,  stout  stakes  at  the  corners  of  the  plats.  On  the 
first  plat  simply  prepare  the  soil  thoroughly  and  apply  no  fertilizer  at  all,  as 
this  is  one  of  the  plats  to  be  used  as  a  comparison.  The  fertilizer  plats  are 
to  be  numbered  as  follows: 

No  fertilizer  applied,  but  same  preparation  as  the  rest. 
Apply  nitrate  of  soda  8  pounds  (160  pounds  per  acre.) 
Apply  16  pounds  of  acid  phosphate  (320  pounds  per  acre.) 
Apply  muriate  of  potash  8  pounds  (160  pounds  per  acre.) 
Apply  no  fertilizer  at  all. 
Apply  nitrate  of  soda  8  pounds  and  acid  phosphate  16 

Apply  nitrate  of  soda  8  pounds  and  muriate  of  potash 

Apply  muriate  of  potash  8  pounds  and  acid  phosphate  16 

Apply  nitrate  of  soda  8  pounds,  acid  phosphate  16  pounds 
and  muriate  of  potash  8  pounds,  making  a  complete  fertilizer. 

Plat  No.  10.     Apply  no  fertilizer. 

The  series  may  be  indefinitely  extended,  and  the  amounts  of  each  con- 
stituent doubled  or  trebled  alternately,  but  the  above  series  will  usually  suffice. 
I  repeat,  that  it  is  necessary  to  use  the  utmost  care  if  results  of  value  are  to 
be  expected.     Get  the  fertilizers  evenly  distributed  over  the  whole  plat,  but 


Plat  No. 

1. 

Plat  No. 

2. 

Plat  No. 

3. 

Plat  No. 

4. 

Plat  No. 

5. 

Plat  No. 

6. 

pounds. 

Plat  No. 

7. 

16  pounds. 

Plat  No. 

8. 

pounds. 

Plat  No. 

9. 

156 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

take  care  that  none  of  any  of  them  gets  outside  the  limits  of  the  plat.  Thor- 
ough mixing  with  the  soil  is  also  essential,  so  that  the  amount  for  each  plant 
may  be  uniform  over  the  whole  plat.  The  normal  applications  here  given  are 
liberal  amounts,  and  they  should  be  liberal  in  order  to  get  the  true  results. 
In  harvesting  the  crops  from  the  plats  there  will  be  need  for  great  care,  so 
that  the  whole  crop  and  no  more  is  taken  from  each;  and  the  subsequent 
handling  and  separating  and  weighing  should  have  the  most  minute  care. 
Study  the  results  carefully  and  do  not  come  to  any  hasty  or  wrong  con- 
clusions. It  will  take  a  series  of  seasons  to  give  the  final  result,  for  the 
peculiarities  of  the  season  must  be  taken  into  the  account.  In  using  such  large 
applications  of  potash  it  is  very  important  that  it  should  be  well  mixed  in 
the  soil,  and  that  it  docs  not  come  in  contact  with  the  seed  in  its  caustic  state, 
as  it  may  seriously  hamper  the  experiment  to  have  the  germination  of  the 
seed  interfered  with  and  a  lack  of  uniformity  in  the  number  of  plants  on 
each.  Each  spring  the  whole  series  of  plats  may  be  plowed  as  one  and  then 
again  laid  off  by  the  stakes  that  should  be  kept  in  place.  The  master's  hand 
must  be  in  this  work,  for  it  cannot  be  left  to  the  ordinary  farm  hand  if  you 
are  to  reap  any  benefit  from  it.  It  is  not  essential  that  the  plats  be  exactly 
the  length  and  width  stated,  provided  they  contain  2178  square  feet,  as  nearly 
as  possible,  as  this  is  the  content  of  the  twentieth  of  an  acre.  But  where 
practicable,  long  and  narrow  plats  make  a  series  more  easily  prepared  than 
would  Square  plats.  The  amounts  suggested  are  from  the  circular  sent  out 
by  the  Department  of  Agriculture,  and  they  are  one  pound  (or  the  multiple 
of  a  pound)  per  square  rod.  Prof.  Voorhees  suggests  that  the  plats  be 
divided  into  square  rods  and  the  amounts  applied  to  each,  but  we  think  that 
in  plats  of  this  size  the  fertilizers  can  well  be  applied  broadcast  with  suffi- 
cient accuracy  if  proper  care  is  taken.  If,  after  proper  study  of  these  plats 
for  a  series  of  years,  it  becomes  apparent  that  any  one  of  the  constituents 
does  not  give  results  of  value  it  may  well  be  inferred  that  the  soil  is  not 
needing  more  of  that,  and  the  farmer  should  save  his  money  by  buying  what 
he  needs  and  not  buying  what  he  does  not  need.  He  may  find  that  for  a 
certain  crop  a  complete  fertilizer  with  nitrogen,  phosphoric  acid  and  potash 
gives  the  best  results.  But  he  need  not  at  once  jump  to  the  conclusion  that 
he  must  buy  a  complete  fertilizer  for  that  crop.  He  may  find,  for  instance, 
that  the  complete  fertilizer  gives  the  best  result  on  the  corn  crop.  But  in 
his  regular  farm  rotation  he  may  put  that  crop  on  a  sod  which  has  received 
the  home-made  manure,  and  its  needs  for  nitrogen  will  be  thus  well  supplied. 
But  having  found  that  his  soil  needs  both  phosphoric  acid  and  potash,  he 
will  be  wise  to  use  these.  But  he  may  find,  as  many  have  found,  that  potash 
in  his  soil  has  little  or  no  effect,  and  then  for  the  com  crop  he  need  buy  only 


Testing  the  Needs  of  the  Soil — 157 

the  acid  phosphate.  And  there  are  soils  still  plentifully  supplied  with  phos- 
phoric acid  which  are  deficient  in  potash  and  nitrogen,  so  that  by  providing 
nitrogen  through  legumes  he  need  buy  only  potash.  On  the  coast  of  North 
Carolina,  intelligent  farmers  assert  that  phosphoric  acid  gives  no  good 
results  on  their  cotton  crop,  while  nitrogen  and  potash  are  very  important. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  the  upper  districts  of  the  South,  in  Georgia  and 
Northern  Texas,  potash  is  found  of  little  importance,  while  phosphoric  acid 
is  the  governing  factor  in  all  fertilizer  mixtures.  On  the  lower  Mississippi, 
the  river  has  evidently  brought  down  plenty  of  potash,  and  the  sugar  planters 
do  not  need  it.  On  the  other  hand,  in  New  England  generally  potash  is  a 
leading  deficiency.  It  will  usually  be  found  that  in  the  upland  red  clay 
soils',  along  the  eastern  side  of  the  Blue  Ridge  mountains,  potash  is  little 
needed,  while,  as  a  rule,  on  the  sandy  soils  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  potash 
is  the  most  important  constituent  of  a  fertilizer.  Prof.  Voorhees  states  that 
in -New  Jersey,  on  good  loamy  soils,  potash  and  phosphoric  acid  are  of  far 
more  importance  in  the  fertilizers  for  the  corn  crop  than  nitrogen;  while 
on  the  sandy  soils,  nitrogen  and  potash  are  relatively  of  more  importance 
than  phosphoric  acid.  This  agrees  with  experiments  on  similar  sandy  soils 
in  Eastern  North  Carolina. 

On  land  devoid  of  humus  and  in  a  low  state  of  productiveness,  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  in  the  start  of  the  improvement,  a  complete  fertilizer  con- 
taining a  due  percentage  of  each  of  the  three  important  elements,  is  the 
thing  to  apply;  while,  as  we  accumulate  humus  and  nitrogen  through  the 
use  of  leguminous  crops,  we  can  by  degrees  get  rid  of  the  necessity  for  the 
purchase  of  nitrogen,  and  it  may  be  found  that  one  of  the  other  constituents 
is  present  in  abundance  and  that  the  want  of  productivenessj^^^ot  due  to 
the  lack  of  it. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

TEE  RESTORATION  OF  WORN  OUT  LAND, 

There  are  few  soils  that  are  really  worn  out.  Long,  bad  tillage  and 
cropping  have  made  them  unproductive,  and  have  depleted  the  stores  of 
plant  food  within  reach  of  plant  roots,  while  right  below  there  is  a  f-ertile 
soil  untouched  by  the  shallow  plowing  of  the  past.  Of  course,  there  are 
deep  and  leachy  sands  which  never  had  much  fertility  to  lose,  and  which 
become  barren  when  their  little  store  of  humus  on  the  surface  is  exhausted; 
and  then  become  the  hardest  of  soils  to  render  productive  and  keep  them  so. 
In  all  parts  of  the  country  there  are  lands  once  fertile  and  productive,  which 
have  become  unproductive  through  long  years  of  bad  plowing  and  incessant 
cropping,  which  could  be  completely  restored  through  their  own  resources, 
if  these  were  properly  used.  On  level  lying  clay  soils  the  first  step  in  their 
improvement  must  be  drainage.  It  is  utterly  useless  to  expend  money  on 
such  soils  for  plant  food  until  the  air  is  permitted  to  penetrate  the  soil  and 
oxidize  the  plant  food  already  there.  Some  method  of  under  drainage,  with 
tile  or  boards  or  rocks  or  logs,  must  be  the  first  step  in  the  improvement  of 
low  lying  clay  soils.  Then  get  some  organic  matter  there,  not  only  for 
the  increase  of  fertility  and  the  furnishing  of  nitrogen,  but  for  the  mechan- 
ical mellowing  of  the  soil.  In  a  section  where  red  clover  thrives  there  is 
nothing  better,  and  in  the  Middle  States  and  the  South,  the  cow  pea  will  be 
the  best  means.  If  the  soil  is  so  reduced  in  fertility  that  clover  will  not  make 
a  crop  on  it,  there  is  a  necessity  at  once  for  the  use  of  mineral  elements, 
phosphoric  acid  and  potash,  to  enable  the  clover  to  grow.  We  often  hear 
farmers  say  that  their  land  is  too  poor  to  grow  clover.  Then  it  is  too  poor 
to  grow  anything!  If  you  wanted  to  get  it  to  grow  a  crop  of  wheat  you 
would  at  once  think  of  putting  some  fertilizer  on  it  to  help  it.  Then  why 
not  put  the  fertilizer  on  for  the  crop  that'  is  to  improve  the  land  ?  Is  it  not 
a  little  odd  to  see  farmers,  who  do  not  hesitate  to  buy  fertilizers  for  a  crop 
which  they  are  going  to  at  once  sell  off  the  land,  try  to  get  clover  to  grow  with- 
out any  help  from  the  plant  food  that  is  necessary  to  its  growth,  and  which  is 
either  deficient  or  unavailable  in  the  soil  ?     The  first  step  in  the  restoration 

(168) 


The  Eestoration  of  Worn  Out  T^and — 159 

of  an  unproductive  soil,  after  drainage,  if  it  needs  it,  must  be  the  restoration 
of  the  conditions  that  existed  in  it  when  it  was  new  and  fertile.  It  had  then 
an  abundant  supply  of  humus,  either  from  the  forest  decay  or  the  prairie  sod, 
and  long  culture  has  exhausted  this  supply  of  food-containing  and 
moisture-retaining  humus.  The  restoration,  then,  of  this  humus,  in  an 
economical  way,  is  the  first  thing  that  demands  the  attention  of  the  cultivator. 
Given  an  old  field  that  will  not  grow  peas,  let  us  ask  why  it  will  not?  If 
the  subsoil  immediately  under  the  old  time  plowing  is  a  good  clay,  and 
the  drainage  is  good,  the  next  thing  to  do  is  to  plow  it  and  loosen  the  hard- 
pan  with  the  subsoil  plow.  Do  not  plow  much  deeper  than  the  old  plowing 
at  first,  but  try  to  loosen  the  hard  subsoil  as  deeply  as  the  team  can  pull  the 
plow.  The  early  autumn  is  the  best  time  for  this.  Sow  some  crop  like  rye 
for  a  winter  cover  and  it  will  be  well  to  give  this  rye  a  dressing  of  a  complete 
fertilizer  mixture  so  as  to  insure  a  good  growth.  Turn  the  rye  under  as 
early  in  the  spring  as  the  ground  can  be  plowed  to  advantage,  and  if  you  are 
in  the  North  sow  oats  and  Canada  peas  for  a  forage  crop,  and  afterwards 
fallow  the  land  for  wheat,  and  give  the  wheat  a  liberal  dressing  of  acid 
phosphate  and  some  form  of  nitrogen  in  organic  matter,  such  as  tankage  or 
cotton  seed  meal,  and  potash  if  needed.  A  good  dressing  for  wheat  will  be 
300  pounds  per  acre  of  a  mixture  .of  1200  pounds  acid  phosphate,  600  pounds 
tankage  and  200  pounds  of  muriate  of  potash,  if  you  have  found  that  your 
land  needs  all  of  these.  The  land  will  now  grow  clover,  and  once  you  get 
a  good  clover  sod  there  will  be  no  further  trouble  in  getting  the  humus  back. 
If  the  land  is  in  the  South  then  cow  peas  should  follow  the  rye,  and  if  the 
land  is  very  deficient  in  humus  it  will  pay  to  turn  them  under  when  dead 
and  have  finished  their  work;  but  as  the  fertility  of  the  land  increases  it 
will  always  be  better  to  cut  and  feed  the  peas.  After  the  peas  are  cut  (and 
we  should  have  applied  to  them  a  liberal  dressing  of  acid  phosphate  and 
potash)  the  land  can  be  gotten  in  order  for  winter  oats,  and  the  oat  crop 
followed  the  next  summer  with  peas,  again  fertilized,  and  now  cut  for  hay 
and  the  stubble  disced  and  sown  with  crimson  clover.  Plow  this  under  early 
in  the  spring  for  cotton,  and  the  land  will  be  found  no  longer  dead  poor,  but 
will  give  a  fair  crop  of  cotton.  Sow  crimson  clover  or  hairy  vetch  among 
the  cotton,  and  during  the  winter  get  all  the  farm  manure  out  on  the  land 
and  put  it  in  corn  the  following  spring.  Sow  peas  among  the  corn  at  last 
working,  and  then  start  with  the  Winter  oats  again  in  September.  Every 
time  the  land  comes  in  peas  give  them  as  liberal  a  .dressing  of  the  mineral 
fertilizers  as  you  can  afford,  and  you  may  be  certain  they  will  do  the  rest. 
You  will  then  be  putting  the  plant  food  where  it  will  tell  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  fertility  of  your  soil,  and  by  feeding  all  the  forage  you  can 


160 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

produce  by  well  manured  peas  and  manured  corn,  you  can  make  your  cotton 
crop  a  real  money  crop,  clear  of  any  incumbrance  of  a  fertilizer  bill.  The 
governing  idea  in  any  plan  for  the  improvement  of  the  soil  should  be  the 
liberal  feeding  of  the  renovating  and  humus  making  crops.  Rye  is  a  good 
starter  for  poor  land,  but  it  is  on  the  legumes  that  dependence  must  be  placed 
for  all  permanent  increase  in  the  humus  content  and  nitrogen  in  the  soil. 

A  similar  course  of  improvement  can  be  adopted  in  a  more  northern  lati- 
tude, where  clover  will  be  the  renovating  crop.  If  the  land  is  too  poor  to  grow 
clover  this  defect  can  be  remedied  by  the  use  of  commercial  fertilizers. 
There  is  hardly  an  old,  worn  piece  of  land  in  the  Middle  States  that  cannot 
be  made  to  grow  clover,  if  an  application  of  a  liberal  amount  of  phosphoric 
acid  and  potash  is  given  it.  The  land  will  not  grow  clover  because  of  a  lack 
of  plant  food  in  the  soil.  Supply  this  want,  and  remember  that  in  the 
growing  of  clover  in  the  Xorth  the  same  conditions  that  govern  the  improve- 
ment of  land  in  the  South  with  the  cow  pea  will  govern.  You  cannot  expect 
something  from  nothing.  If  the  soil  lacks  the  plant  food  for  the  clover  it 
cannot  get  the  clover  to  gather  nitrogen  for  it;  but  if  the  soil  is  supplied 
with  what  the  clover  needs,  it  will  go  to  work  and  get  the  nitrogen  from  the 
air  and  locate  it  in  the  organic  matter  in  the  soil,  so  that  subsequent  crops 
can  get  the  use  of  it.  A  three  year  rotation  of  corn,  wheat  and  clover,  with 
fertilizers  applied  to  the  clover  at  first  and  the  wheat  also,  and  the  manure 
made  from  the  feeding  of  the  clover  and  corn  stover  on  the  land  is  returned 
to  the  clover  sod  for  the  corn,  you  will  find  that  in  a  little  while  you  need 
to  buy  only  acid  phosphate  and  potash,  and  put  these  on  the  clover,  with  ah 
occasional  light  dressing  of  lime,  and  your  wheat  will  be  grown  well  without 
further  fertilization;  for  when  you  come  to  the  making  of  manure  enough  to 
cover  the  corn  field,  the  wheat  will  have  the  best  fertilizing  possible. 


CHAPTER  XX. 
HOW  LEGUMES  HELP  THE  FARMER. 

We  have  said  a  great  deal  about  leguminous  plants  and  their  great  value 
in  restoring  and  keeping  up  the  fertility  of  the  soil.  We  wish  to  make 
perfectly  plain  what  the  work  of  these  plants  is,  and  what  we  can  expect 
from  their  use ;  and  also  to  correct  some  erroneous  notions  in  regard  to  them. 
The  name  legume,  has  been  given  to  the  family  of  plants  to  which  the  pea 
belongs,  because  they  bear  their  fruit  in  the  form  of  a  pod,  called  by  botan- 
ists, a  legume.  Hence,  the  name  of  the  botanical  order  is  leguminosae,  or 
pod  bearers. 

It  was  noticed  for  many  years  that  the  members  of  this  order  of  plants 
did,  in  some  way,  add  fertility  to  the  soil  in  which  they  grew,  and  that 
there  was  more  nitrogen  present  than  the  soil  possessed  before  the  crop  was 
grown.  Scientists  came  to  the  conclusion  that  in  some  way  they  were  able 
to  get  and  use  the  free  nitrogen,  so  plentiful  in  the  air  everywhere.  Just 
how  they  did  this  was  for  many  years  the  subject  of  earnest  investigation, 
and  is  still  a  matter  for  scientific  inquiry,  for  although  we  have  learned  a 
great  deal  in  regard  to  the  agency  through  which  they  are  able  to  get  the 
nitrogen,  there  is  yet  much  to  learn  in  regard  to  the  exact  process  that  goes 
on  in  the  soil  during  the  growth  of  the  leguminous  crop.  For  all  the  pur- 
poses of  the  farmer,  however,  it  is  sufficient  to  know  that  he  can,  through  the 
medium  of  a  crop  of  peas  or  clover,  get  enough  of  organic  nitrogen  stored 
in  his  soil  to  at  least  carry  the  following  crop  on  the  land,  if  not  more ;  and 
that  he  can  do  this  while  growing  the  most  valuable  food  crop  for  his  stock. 

NITRIFICATION   IN   GENERAL. 

Nitrogen  is  found  in  all  cultivated  soils  in  three  forms,  of  ammonia, 
nitrates  and  as  organic  matter  containing  nitrogen.  Very  little  exists  in 
the  soil  in  the  form  of  ammonia,  as  the  process  of  nitrification  rapidly 
changes  any  ammonia  that  may  be  there  into  nitric  acid.  IJsually  the  nitrogen 
in  the  soil,  in  the  form  of  nitrates  of  potash,  lime  or  magnesium,  is  not  over 

(161) 


162 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

5  per  cent,  of  the  total  amount  of  nitrogen  in  the  soil.  By  far  the  greater 
part  of  the  soil  nitrogen  exists  in  the  form  of  humus  or  organic  matter 
containing  nitrogenous  matter.  "This  humic  matter  is  a  mixture  of  various 
bodies,  the  precise  nature  of  which  has  been  very  imperfectly  ascertained, 
owing  to  their  general  insolubility  and  the  absence  of  well  marked  chemical 
properties.  We  will  probably  all  agree  that  the  nitrogenous  organic  matter 
of  soils  is  a  residue  left  by  the  incomplete  oxidation  and  decay  of  the  dead 
tissues  of  previously  existing  plants  and  animals,  and  that  it  has  its  primary 
origin  in  the  capacity  possessed  by  plants  of  assimilating  various  forms  of 
inorganic  nitrogen  and  constructing  therefrom  nitrogenous  organic  bodies 
containing  nitrogen,  carbon,  hydrogen  and  oxygen,  with  the  addition,  in 
many  cases,  of  a  small  quantity  of  sulphur.^'  (Rothamsted  Lectures. 
Warington.)  It  was  found  in  the  experiments  at  Eothamsted,  in  England, 
that  in  a  meadow  in  grass  for  thirty  years  there  was  an  increase  of  nitrogen 
in  the  surface  soil  at  the  rate  of  50  pounds  per  acre  per  annum. 

A  careful  account  was  kept  of  the  manure  applied  to  this  meadow  during 
the  time;  the  meadow  was  mown  annually  and  the  hay  weighed.  It  was 
manured  with  city  manure  from  the  London  stables  each  alternate  year,  and 
had  small  annual  dressings  of  superphosphate,  sulphate  of  potash  and 
nitrate  of  soda.  After  making  a  liberal  estimate  for  the  nitrogen  in  the 
maiiure,  it  was  found  that  there  had  been  a  considerable  gain  in  nitrogen 
over  and  above  the  amount  applied  in  the  manures.  The  total  gain  was  not 
less  than  32  pounds  per  annum,  as  the  whole  manure  was  charged  to  the  field, 
and  no  account  taken  of  the  nitrogen  lost  from  the  soil  or  taken  by  the  crop. 

From  the  growing  of  the  clover  there  was  also  found  a  still  greater 
increase  of  nitrogen  in  the  soil.  TJnmanured  barley  following  clover,  made 
58.  bushels  per  acre,  while  the  part  without  clover  and  following 
barley  made  but  little  over  37  bushels  per  acre.  In  a  four 
year  rotation  in  which  clover  was  used  once  in  the  four  years 
for  forty  years,  the  average  annual  amount  of  nitrogen  removed 
in  the  crops  in  excess  of  that  contained  in  the  manure  was  over 
30  pounds  per  acre,  while  the  fertility  of  the  land  has  not  diminished.  Mr. 
Warington  adds:  "It  must  not  be  supposed  that  a  leguminous  crop  neces- 
sarily leaves  a  soil  richer  in  nitrogen  than  it  was  before  its  growth.  The 
sensible  increase  in  the  soil  takes  place  only  when  the  soil  at  starting  was 
not  too  rich  in  nitrogenous  organic  matter,  and  when  the  leguminous 
growth  was  abundant.  *  *  *  The  rich  kitchen  garden  ground  at  Rothamsted 
shows  a  considerable  loss  of  nitrogen  during  the  continuous  growth  of  red 
clover.  But  in  these  cases  the  fact  of  the  gain  of  nitrogen  can  probably  be 
established  if  we  regard  the  large  amount  of  nitrogen  removed  in  the  crop, 


i 


How  Legumes  Help  the  Farmer — 163 

and  take  into  consideration  the  serious  losses  of  nitrogen  which  are  always 
in  progress  in  soil,  and  especially  in  a  rich  soil.'^ 

Some  of  the  nitrogen  in  the  soil  comes  from  the  ammonia  and  nitric 
acid  in  the  air  brought  to  the  soil  in  rain  or  snow.  In  localities  distant 
from  large  manufacturing  towns  this  has  been  shown  to  be  very  small. 

Some  believe  that  plants  can  assimilate  through  their  leaves  the  gaseous 
ammonia  in  the  air,  but  this  has  not  as  yet  been  proved  to  be  a  fact,  though 
the  late  Dr.  Gray  thought  that  they  ought  to  do  so,  though  he  admitted 
that  he  had  never  proved  that  they  do.  Schlosing  found,  however,  that  moist 
soil  freely  exposed  to  the  air,  took  up  nitrogen  at  the  rate  of  about  38  pounds 
per  acre  per  annum  in  the  surface,  mainly  in  the  form  of  ammonia.  But  as 
his  experiments  were  conducted  in  Paris,  the  amount  is  entirely  too  high  for 
the  open  country 

TAKING   free   NITROGEN    FROM   THE   AIR  THROUGH   PLANT   GROWTH. 

We  have  of  late  years  learned  a  great  deal  in  regard  to  the  acquisition 
of  nitrogen  from  the  air  by  leguminous  plants.  All  the  scientists  now 
admit  that  the  microscopic  fungous  plants  that  form  the  tubercles  on  the 
roots  of  leguminous  plants,  do  in  some  way  not  as  yet  understood  fully,  get 
the  free  nitrogen  of  the  air  and  leave  it  in  the  soil  in  the  shape  of  organic 
nitrogenous  matter.  The  leguminous  plant,  like  all  oilier  plants,  can  absorb 
nitrogen  from  the  soil  through  the  action  of  its  root  hairs,  but  it  has  the 
further  advantage  over  other  kinds  of  plants,  that  it  can  get,  through  the 
agency  of  the  microbes  in  the  tubercles  on  its  roots,  a  still  further  and  greater 
supply  than  the  soil  affords  to  other  plants.  The  microscopic  organisms 
may  exist  in  the  soil  where  there  are  no  plants  of  clover  or  other  legumes, 
but  no  experiments  have  shown  that  they  can  fix  the  free  nitrogen  of  the 
air  in  the  soil  until  they  become  attached  to  the  roots  of  the  leguminous 
plant.  But,  as  we  have  said,  there  is  no  need  for  us,  as  farmers,  to  go  into 
the  investigation  of  the  biological  processes  by  which  the  plants  do  get  the 
nitrogen  of  the  atmosphere.  Their  life  history  has  been  too  briefly  studied 
as  yet  to  demonstrate  the  exact  process.  Sufficient  for  the  present  purpose 
is  the  fact  that  the  organic  nitrogen  is  thus  fixed  in  the  soil  and  becomes 
available  for  succeeding  crops. 

NITRIFICATION   OF   ORGANIC   MATTER   IN   SOILS. 

Having  located  the  free  nitrogen  of  the  air,  through  the  action  of  the 
root  tubercles  of  the  leguminous  plants,  let  us  consider  how  this  organic 
matter  becomes  food  for  the  plants,  or  how  any  organic  matter  in  soils  is 


164 — Chop  Growing  and  Ciior  Feeding 

made  to  yield  up  its  nitrogen  to  our  crops.  This  process,  by  which  organic 
matter  has  been  so  acted  upon  as  to  contribute  to  the  growth  of  crops,  has 
for  many  years  been  a  subject  that  has  engaged  the  attention  and  occupied 
the  time  of  the  scientific  investigators  all  over  the  world.  The  conditions 
necessary  to  nitrification,  or  the  formation  of  nitrates  for  the  use  of  green 
plants,  have  been  carefully  investigated.  The  result  of  these  investigations 
shows  beyond  doubt  that  nitrification  in  the  soil  is  the  work  of  a  living 
organism,  and  of  more  than  one  kind  of  organism. 

These  organisms  belong  to  that  low  order  of  vegetation  just  barely 
within  the  reach  of  the  power  of  the  modern  microscope,  and  known  by  the 
general  name  of  bacteria.  Plants  which  have  green  matter  in  their  tissues 
we  have  shown  to  have  the  power  of  getting  carbon,  which  is  essential  to  their 
structure,  through  the  power  their  green  matter  has  of  decomposing  the  car- 
bonic acid  of  the  air  and  taking  therefrom  the  carbon  they  need,  while  at  the 
same  time  restoring  oxygen  to  the  air;  and  it  has  generally  been  assumed 
that  the  low  orders  of  a  fungoid  character,  having  no  green  matter,  were 
compelled  to  get  the  carbon  to  form  their  tissues  from  the  organic  matter  of 
living  or  dead  green  plants.  But  one  of  the  greatest  discoveries  in  connec- 
tion with  the  nitrifying  organisms  is  the  fact  they  are  not  dependent  on 
organic  mater  for  their  carbon,  but  can  get  it  from  such  mineral  combinations 
as  carbonate  of  lime ;  and  this  is  one  of  the  reasons  for  the  importance  of  lime 
in  promoting  nitrification  in  a  clay  soil  containing  organic  matter.  The  nitri- 
fying organism  can  use  organic  carbon,  but  can  also  use  the  inorganic  com- 
pounds containing  carbon  for  its  growth. 

CONDITIONS   ESSENTIAL   TO   THE   FORMATION   OF   NITRATES   IN   THE   SOIL. 

While  it  is  possible  for  the  nitrifying  organisms  to  get  carbon  from  in- 
organic compounds,  all  investigations  have  shown  that  organic  food  is  essen- 
tial to  their  activity,  and  the  work  they  are  to  do.  They  must  also  have  a 
supply  of  oxygen.  Nitrification  will  not  take  place  in  a  soil  saturated  with 
water,  excluding  the  oxygen  of  the  air;  hence  the  importance  of  drainage 
in  a  soil  abounding  in  nitrifiable  organic  matter.  Muck  in  the  swamp  does 
not  nitrify,  though  almost  entirely  composed  of  organic  matter;  hence,  too, 
the  importance  of  tillage  in  promoting  the  aeration  of  a  heavy,  clay  soil. 
Neither  can  nitrification,  or  the  formation  of  nitrates  in  the  soil,  take  place 
unless  there  is  some  base  in  the  soil  for  the  nitric  acid  to  unite  with.  These 
bases  are  alkaline  in  their  nature,  and  the  process  of  nitrification  requires  a 
feebly  alkaline  condition  in  the  soil.  Not  only  is  nitrification  in  muck  pre- 
vented by  the  presence  of  water  shutting  out  the  oxygen  of  the  air,  but  also 


How  Legumes  Help  the  Farmer — 165 

by  the  acid  condition  caused  by  the  humic  acids  present  in  the  muck,  and  the 
absence  of  alkaline  bases.  The  addition  of  lime  to  the  soil  furnishes  this 
alkaline  base,  and  nitrification  will  go  on  rapidly  in  the  presence  of  an  abund- 
ant supply  of  carbonate  of  lime.  That  is,  a  supply  in  proportion  to  the 
amount  of  organic  matter  present;  for  if  in  too  great  amount,  the  process 
may  be  checked  almost  permanently,  as  has  frequently  been  experienced 
by  our  farmers  who  have  used  shell  marl  to  excess  on  lands  deficient  in 
organic  matter. 

Another  important  condition  for  the  rapid  formation  of  nitrates  is  the 
best  temperature.  While  it  has  been  found  that  the  process  will  go  on  at  a 
quite  low  temperature,  and,  in  fact,  all  winter  in  sections  where  the  soil 
does  not  freeze  deeply ;  it  is  far  more  active  duringthe  heats  of  summer,  pro- 
vided the  temperature  is  not  too  high  and  there  is  plenty  of  moisture.  It 
is  entirely  checked  at  a  temperature  of  131  degrees  Fahrenheit,  and  in  per- 
fectly air-dry  soil. 

Strong  light,  such  as  direct  sunshine,  retards  nitrification  in  the  soil; 
shading  the  soil  with  any  sort  of  cover  promotes  more  rapid  accumulation  of 
nitrates.  Hence  the  top  dressing  with  manure  not  only  makes  a  mulch  to 
retain  moisture  in  the  surface  soil,  but  also,  by  means  of  the  shading,  it  pro- 
motes the  nitrification  of  the  organic  matter  in  the  soil,  though,  at  the  same 
time,  there  will  be  a  check  to  the  nitrification  of  that  part  of  the  manure 
fully  exposed  to  the  sun. 

NITRIFICATION   AND   ITS   PRODUCTS. 

Nitrification,  or  the  formation  of  nitrates  in  the  soil,  is  the  result  of  the 
power  possessed  by  certain  microscopic  plants  of  the  great  class  known  by 
the  general  name  of  bacteria,  to  oxidize  the  ammonia,  or  organic  matter,  in 
the  soil ;  and,  through  the  energy  thus  produced,  to  get  for  their  own  use  the 
carbon  in  combination  in  the  soil.  The  result  of  the  oxidizing  influence  of 
these  plants  is  the  production  of  nitric  acid,  carbonic  acid,  and  water,  but 
whether  these  are  all  the  result  of  the  activity  of  one  form  of  mico-organism 
or  not  is  as  yet  unknown.  For  many  years  some  of  the  most  accurate  in- 
vestigators in  this  country  and  in  Europe  have  been  engaged  in  the  study 
of  the  organisms  that  transform  organic  nitrogen  into  nitrates.  These 
investigations  have  proved  that  there  is  more  than  one  kind  of  microbe  en- 
gaged in  the  work.  ("Remember  that  a  microbe,  or  bacterium,  is  a  plant  and 
not  an  animal.)  One  form  feeds  on  ammonia  and  transforms  it  into  nitrous 
acid,  making  nitrites,  and  can  go  no  further.  Another  form  then  takes  up 
the  work  of  oxidation  and  from  these  nitrites  forms  nitric  acid,  and  hence 


166 — Crop  GtROwing  and  Crop  Feeding 

nitrates  of  the  bases  that  may  exist  in  the  soil  such  as  lime,  magnesium  or 
potassium.  This  last  form  has  no  power  to  attack  ammonia,  but  must  have 
a  nitrite  for  its  food,  and  the  previous  work  of  breaking  down  the  organic 
matter  and  the  release  of  ammonia  must  be  done  by  other  plants.  Both  of 
these  organisms  are  present  in  enormous  numbers  in  any  cultivated  soil,  but 
most  largely,  of  course,  in  those  having  a  large  amount  of  nitrifiable  organic 
matter. 

The  work  of  both  organisms  goes  on  together.  Nitrogen  added  to  the 
soil  in  the  form  of  ammonia  must  go  through  the  oxidation  process  conducted 
by  these  minute  plants,  and  be  changed  into  a  nitrate  before  our  crops  can 
use  it.  This  shows  the  importance  of  having  nitrogen  present  in  a  fertilizer 
in  two  forms.  Nitrate  of  soda,  for  instance,  is  already  in  the  form  of  a 
nitrate,  and  plants  can  use  it  at  once  if  they  are  in  active  growth ;  if  not  used 
at  once  it  soon  washes  from  the  soil.  Then  the  supply  of  nitrogen  must  be 
kept  up  through  the  nitrification  of  organic  ammonia  in  the  form  of  cotton 
seed  meal,  fish  scrap,  castor  pomace,  tankage,  etc.,  generally  used  in  the  man- 
ufacture of  a  complete  fertilizer. 

At  Rothamsted,  England,  the  nitrous  organisms  were  found  abounding 
in  the  surface  soil  and  down  to  three  feet  from  the  surface  in  a  clay  soil,  but 
the  organism  which  makes  nitrates  from  the  nitrites  is  found  in  the  surface 
soil  only,  although  it  may  do  its  work  in  a  sandy  soil  at  a  greater  depth. 

NITRATES  ARE  EASILY  DRAINED  FROM  THE  SOIL. 

It  was  found  at  Rothamsted,  that  the  drainage  water  from  a  field  annu- 
ally cultivated  in  wheat  without  manure,  carried  off  3.2  parts  of  nitrogen  to 
every  million  parts  of  water,  on  an  average,  during  the  year.  If  this  much 
is  continually  being  carried  off  from  a  field  that  has  been  cultivated  without 
manure  for  fifty  years,  how  much  greater  must  be  the  loss  of  nitrates  from 
land  regularly  fertilized  and  left  bare,  as  the  cotton  lands  of  the  South  have 
been  for  many  generations.  This  loss  from  bare  soil  is  one  of  the  chief 
reasons  for  a  proper  rotation.  In  soils  occupied  by  leguminous  plants  the 
subsoils  become  rich  in  nitrates  drained  downwards. 

CROPS  WHICH  PREVENT  LOSS  OF   NITROGEN. 

'^Cereal  crops,  whose  growing  period  is  confined  to  spring  and  early  sum- 
mer, are  very  poor  conservers  of  soil-nitrogen."  Continuous,  clean  culture 
will  soon  impoverish  a  good  soil.  Permanent  pasture  has  been  shown  to  be 
the  best  conserver  of  nitrogen  in  the  soil.     But  all  land  cannot  be  kept  thus 


How  Legumes  Help  the  Farmer — 167 

covered,  hence  the  importance  of  a  rotation  which  will  bring  cover  crops  as 
often  as  possible  on  the  land  The  ease  with  which  nitrates  are  washed  out 
of  the  bare  soil,  and  the  fact  that  there  is  very  little  of  this  loss  when  the 
soil  is  covered  with  a  growing  crop,  shows  the  reason  why  the  cotton  lands  of 
the  South  have  lost  fertility,  through  the  leaving  of  the  land  bare  and  fully 
exposed  to  the  heavy  rainfall  in  winter.  In  the  South  especially,  there 
should  always  be  shading  crops  of  peas  in  summer,  on  all  land  not  in  culti- 
vation with  hoed  crops;  but  the  hoed  crops  should  always  be  followed  by 
crops  that  will  keep  a  green  growth  on  the  land  during  the  winter.  In  a  cli- 
mate where  the  soil  is  locked  up  with  frost  during  the  whole  winter,  there 
may  be  some  advantage  gained  by  fall  plowing  of  a  heavy  soil,  and  letting  it 
lie  to  freeze  and  mellow  in  a  rough  state  all  winter.  But  in  the  South,  where 
there  is  always  more  rain  than  freezing,  bare  land  will  lose  fertility  faster  in 
winter,  so  far  as  the  nitrogen  is  concerned,  than  it  will  in  the*  summer  crop- 
ping. Fortunately  we  have  crops  especially  fitted  for  a  winter  cover  to  fol- 
low the  cotton  or  corn,  and  crops,  too,  that  will  be  gathering  nitrogen  from 
the  air  instead  of  allowing  it  to  waste. 

NITROGEN  FIXING  CROPS  AND  THEIR  PLACE  IN  A  ROTATION. 

We  have  pretty  thoroughly  discussed  the  subject  of  nitrification,  or  the 
change  of  organic  ammonia  into  nitrates,  in  the  soil,  but  we  must  remember 
that  this  is  a  different  process  from  the  acquisition  of  the  aerial  nitrogen  by 
the  microbes  that  live  on  the  roots  of  clover,  peas  and  other  leguminous 
plants.  These  get  the  free  nitrogen-gas  of  the  air  and  leave  it  in  the  form 
of  organic  matter  in  the  roots  of  the  peas  or  clover  grown  on  the  land,  and 
this  organic  matter  must  then  go  through  the  process  of  nitrification  before 
plants  can  use  it.  This  is  a  fortunate  thing  for  the  farmer,  for  if  the  work 
of  the  microbes  on  the  roots  of  legumes  was  confined  to  only  the  formation 
of  nitrates  in  the  soil  they  would  probably  be  all  washed  away  before  the  next 
season's  crop  came  on  the  land.  Probably  a  considerable  portion  is  thus 
formed  and  lost  to  the  soil,  Tor  the  exact  process  by  which  the  microbes  so 
transform  the  free  nitrogen  that  the  legumes  can  take  it  up,  is  one  of  the 
things  of  which  little  is  known;  but  the  larger  part,  perhaps,  is  left  in  the 
form  of  organic  matter,  which  must  go  through  the  process  of  decay  and 
nitrification  before  it  can  be  used,  and,  hence,  is  held  in  the  soil  till  the  fol- 
lowing crop  has  a  chance  to  make  use  of  it. 


CHAPTEK  XXI. 
TEE  BEST  LEGUMINOUS  PLANTS, 

BED  CLOVER. 

For  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  United  States  it  is  probable  that  the 
most  useful  nitrogen  fixing  crop  is  the  red  clover,  and  in  all  the  great  grain 
growing  sections  the  development  of  the  productiveness  of  the  soil  depends 
very  largely  on  the  success  with  which  clover  can  be  grown.  There  has,  of 
late  years,  been  a  great  deal  of  complaint  all  through  the  Northern  States  of 
the  difficulty  in  getting  a  good  stand  of  clover.  We  often  hear  farmers  say 
that  their  land  is  "clover  sick."  Generally  the  truth  is  that  it  is  sick  for 
the  lack  of  clover.  The  success  of  the  microbes  on  legumes  has  been  found  to 
depend  upon  the  soil  being  in  a  weakly  alkaline  condition.  Where  the  soil 
is  decidedly  acid  clover  will  not  thrive.  If,  therefore,  it  is  found  that  there 
is  difficulty  in  getting  a  stand  of  clover,  the  soil  should  be  tested  for  acidity. 
A  piece  of  blue  litmus  paper  can  be  had  at  any  drug  store ;  if  this  is  placed 
in  the  damp  soil,  and  is  found  to  change  to  a  pinkish  color,  it  may  be  assumed 
that  there  is  acidity  in  the  soil,  and  that  a  dressing  of  lime  will  bring  about  a 
change.  We  once  saw  a  field  which  had  been  long  known  as  clover  sick  on 
which  a  dressing  of  lime  at  once  cured  the  sickness  and  clover  grew  with 
great  luxuriance. 

THE  PLACE  FOR  CLOVER  IN  A  ROTATION. 

This  will  depend  on  the  character  of  the  farming  done,  and  which  of 
the  crops  is  the  money  crop  of  the  farm.  In  growing  wheat  on  a  heavy  wheat 
soil  there  is  no  doubt  that,  as  a  rule,  the  heaviest  crops  are  grown  on  a  clover 
sod  summer  fallowed  after  the  first  crop  of  clover  has  been  cut  for  hay. 
Summer  fallowing  brings  matters  in  the  soil  into  an  available  state  and 
results  generally  in  a  good  wheat  crop.     But  whether  in  the  long  run  it  is 

(168) 


The  Best  Leguminous  Plants — 169 

best  we  are  very  doubtful.  We  long  ago  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
best  average  crops  of  wheat  and  corn  are  produced  in  a  three  year  rotation 
where  the  wheat  follows  the  corn  or  tobacco  or  potatoes,  and  crops  are  pro- 
duced in  place  of  a  long  summer  fallow.  In  such  a  rotation  the  hoed  crops 
would  come  on  the  clover  sod,  with  all  the  winter  accumulation  of  manure 
spread  broadcast.  The  process  of  nitrification  of  the  organic  matter  in  the 
clover  roots  and  the  manure  would  go  on  rapidly  through  the  summer  in  the 
hoed  crops,  and  they  would  get  part  of  the  benefit,  while  there  would  still 
be  enough  nitrogen  left  to  carry  the  wheat  crop ;  and  there  would  be  no  need 
on  most  lands  for  the  use  of  any  fertilizer  on  the  wheat  except  a  liberal  dress- 
ing of  phosphoric  acid  in  the  cheap  form  of  an  acid  phosphate, 
or,  on  light  soils,  a  dressing  of  acid  phosphate  and  potash.  In 
each  alternate  round  of  the  rotation  a  light  dressing  of  lime  on  the  young 
clover,  the  next  spring  after  the  wheat  is  cut,  will  keep  up  the  productiveness 
of  the  soil  for  the  clover  crop.  In  this  rotation  one  of  the  most  important 
matters  for  the  improvement  of  the  soil  is  for  the  land  to  go  into  winter  with 
a  thick  mat  of  clover,  preceding  the  spring  when  it  is  to  be  plowed  for  corn. 
No  pasturing  should  be  allowed  on  the  lands  under  rotation,  but  a  permanent 
pasture  should  be  provided  and  kept  in  a  productive  condition  by  annual 
top  dressings  of  fertilizers.  We  have  noticed,  recently,  in  one  of  the  best 
wheat  growing  sections  of  Maryland,  that  the  practice  is  to  graze  the  clover 
to  the  bare  ground  during  the  summer.  The  result  is  that  the  heavy  clay 
soil  gets  very  deficient  in  organic  matter,  and  while  the  wheat  crops  are  good, 
the  land  runs  together  and  bakes  so  badly  that  the  corn  crop  is  far  from  being 
what  it  should  be.  A  good  coat  of  clover  leaves  over  the  soil,  especially  in  a 
mild  winter  climate,  is  very  important  to  the  maintenance  of  the  nitrogen 
in  the  soil,  and  for  the  keeping  up  of  a  due  amount  of  humus,  or  material 
susceptible  of  nitrification.  If  the  clover  is  grazed  to  the  bare  ground  during 
the  summer  and  fall,  there  is  less  humus  making  material  returned  to  the 
soil  than  should  be,  and  there  is  not  enough  of  green  growth  to  prevent  the 
great  loss  of  nitrates  during  the  winter.  In  a  mild  climate  the  clover  may,  of 
course,  be  mown  twice,  but  all  growth  after  the  second  mowing  should  be 
sacredly  preserved  for  the  good  of  the  land. 

CRIMSON  CLOVER. 

This  annual  plant  has  of  late  years  attracted  a  great  deal  of  attention, 
and  there  has  been  much  diversity  of  opinion  and  experience  as  to  its  value. 
North  of  Central  Pennsylvania  there  seems  to  be  some  reason  to  doubt  its 
hardiness  in  certain  soils,  and  in  cold  winters.       But  from  Pennsylvania 


170 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

southward  there  are  few  localities  in  which  it  cannot  be  successfully  grown. 
It  is  a  plant  particularly  adapted  to  Southern  conditions.  All  over  the  South, 
particularly  in  the  cotton  belt,  the  red  clover  has  been  found  a  very  uncer- 
tain plant,  as  it  burns  out  during  the  heat  of  the  first  summer.  But  the 
crimson  clover,  sown  in  the  fall  and  making  its  growth  during  winter  and 
early  spring,  has  been  found  in  most  places  of  inestimable  value.  Its  growth 
is  made  at  a  time  when  no  crops  are  needed  on  the  land,  and  it  keeps  up  the 
fixing  of  nitrogen  in  the  soil  during  all  the  mild  winter  weather,  and  makes 
li  fine  preparatory  crop  for  either  corn  or  cotton.  It  furnishes  the  cotton 
farmer  a  crop  to  cover  his  fields  that  would  otherwise  be  bare  all  winter,  for  it 
can  be  sown  among  the  standing  cotton,  and  thus  provide  a  fine  preparatory 
crop  for  the  corn  that  follows  the  next  spring  in  a  three  year  rotation.  With 
crimson  clover  in  winter  and  the  cow  pea  in  summer,  the  cotton  farmers  have 
a  team  of  legumes  that  cannot  be  equalled  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  and 
which  enables  them  more  rapidly  to  improve  their  lands  than  can  be  done 
anywhere  else. 

In  the  South  there  has  grown  up  an  impression  that  crimson  clover  suc- 
ceeds best  when  sown  on  land  without  any  preparation  whatever.  This  has 
grown  out'  of  the  fact  that  we  have  had  uniform  success  in  sowing  the  seed 
on  a  wheat  or  oats  stubble,  and  it  is  not  the  absence  of  preparation,  but  the 
shading  of  the  stubble  that  has  protected  the  young  clover  from  the  sun. 
Sown  among  corn  after  the  last  working,  and  before  the  ground  has  at  all 
crusted,  will  usually  be  successful.  The  same  may  be  said  of  sowing  among 
cotton  at  last  working  in  August.  When  sown  on  well  prepared  land  and 
fully  exposed  to  our  hot  August  or  September  sun  there  is  frequently  a  loss 
of  the  entire  sowing,  if  the  seed  germinates  after  a  summer  shower  followed 
by  a  hot  sun,  which  scalds  off  the  young  plants.  One  of  the  best  nurse-plants 
is  a  light  sowing  of  buckwheat.  This  germinates  quickly  and  makes  a  shade 
at  once.  Fall  oats- will  also  answer  very  well  in  the  South,  and  the  whole  can 
be  mown  together  in  the  spring  as  soon  as  the  clover  is  fairly  in  bloom.  This 
is  an  important  point,  if  the  clover  is  intended  for  hay,  for  if  the  heads  are 
allowed  to  mature  the  stiff  hairs  on  them  make  the  hay  a  dangerous  food  for 
horses.  As  I  write  this  the  following  wise  editorial  comes  to  hand  in  the 
American  Agriculturist : 

"A  few  years  ago  seedsmen  began  pushing  crimson  clover  and  insisting 
that  it  could  be  grown  almost  anywhere.  After  careful  investigation  The 
American  Agriculturist  warned  its  readers,  in  cold  climates,  to  avoid  sowing 
extensively  with  the  expectation  of  carrying  it  over  the  winter.  We  pointed 
out  the  benefit  which  might  be  derived  from  seeding  in  spring  or  mid-summer 
and  plowing  under  as  green  manure.     The  past  five  years  experience  proves 


The  Best  Leguminous  Plants — 171 

that  our  position  was  the  correct  one.  North  of  the  south  line  of  Ohio  this 
clover  will  soldom  winter,  except  in  some  of  the  coast  States.  In  the  South 
where  the  soil  is  rich  enough,  it  winters  well  and  is  a  great  nitrogen  gatherer. 
Jn  the  North,  orchardists,  small  fruit  growers  and  some  general  farmers 
testify  to  its  great  value  as  a  soil  enricher,  even  though  it  must  be  sown  anew 
each  season.  All  this  goes  to  show  the  wisdom  of  first  trying  new  things  on 
a  small  scale." 

This  we  believe  to  be  the  true  statement  of  the  case,  and  we  are  satisfied 
that  this  clover  can  be  made  a  valuable  catch  crop  in  sections  where  it  will  not 
usually  winter,  by  sowing  on  stubble  where  the  red  clover  has  failed,  and  thus 
prevent  the  loss  of  a  nitrogen  gatherer  on  the  land.  On  the  Atlantic  coast 
we  have  no  doubt  that  it  will  succeed  further  north  than  it  does  in  the  Mis- 
sissippi Valley.  On  the  northern  limit  of  its  culture  the  seed  should  be  sown 
early  in  July.  From  Virginia  southward  September  is  the  best  month  for  the 
sowing,  and  the  place  for  it  is  either  among  corn,  or  cotton,  or  on  the  stubble 
where  peas  have  been  mown.  Fifteen  pounds  of  seed  should  be  sown  per 
acre.  This  year  we  have  sown  some  among  standing  corn  at  last  working 
in  July,  and  it  is  yet  too  soon  to  state  whether  it  will  be  a  success  or  not.  At 
the  present  writing  (August  9)  there  is  a  good  stand* 

cow  PEAS. 

The  greatest  of  all  nitrogen  gatherers,  at  least  for  all  the  country  south 
of  the  Potomac,  and  for  a  good  area  north  of  that  line  on  the  Atlantic  coast, 
is  the  Southern  cow  pea.  The  name  pea  has  led  to  a  great  deal  of  misunder- 
standing among  our  Northern  friends  in  regard  to  the  nature  of  the  plant, 
and  we  often  have  inquiries  as  to  whether  the  Southern  pea  will  do  to  sow 
with  oats  as  the  Canada  pea  is  sown.  The  Canada  pea  is  a  true  pea,  but  the 
Southern  cow  pea  (Vigna  Catiang)  is  more  nearly  allied  to  the  bean,  is  a 
tender,  hot  weather  plant,  and  will  not  grow  till  the  soil  is  warm.  Hence 
it  cannot  be  used  in  connection  with  oats,  since  the  oats  will  not  thrive  if 
sown  at  the  time  peas  should  be  sown,  and  the  peas  will  not  grow  if  sown  at 
the  time  the  oats  should  be  put  in  the  ground.  The  only  pea  to  associate 
with  oats  in  spring  is  the  Canada  field  pea,  of  which  we  will  have  more  to  say 
hereafter.  The  great  advantage  of  the  Southern  cow  pea  is  the  ease  with 
which  the  soil  can  be  covered  with  a  nitrogen  gathering  crop,  after  the  crop 
of  small  grain  has  been  harvested,  and  the  immense  crop  of  the  most  valuable 
forage,  which  can  be  mown  the  same  season.  We  have  often  said  that  the 
Southern  farmer  does  not  need  to  regret  the  fact  that  red  clover  does  not 
thrive  on  his  lands,  for  in  the  cow  pea  he  has  a  plant  that  will  do  all  that  the 
*The  Intense  beat  of  September  kiUed  It 


172 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

clover  can  do  and  will  do  it  in  a  tithe  of  the  time  it  takes  clover  to  do  it,  and 
which  will,  at  the  same  time,  give  him  a  crop  of  forage  of  unequaled  value 
for  stock  of  any  kind. 

We  have  been  fighting  the  battle  for  the  cow  pea  for  a  generation,  and 
its  value  as  a  hay  crop  is  being  recognized  in  localities  far  North  of  where 
we  formerly  thought  it  possible  to  successfully  grow  it.  This  has  largely 
been  brought  about  by  the  introduction  of  early  maturing  varieties,  like  the 
Warren  Extra  Early,  which  ripens  in  sixty  days  from  the  sowing;  and  thus 
gives  the  Northern  grower  an  opportunity  to  get  the  crop  almost  as  well  as 
the  Southern  farmer.  Especially  in  the  West  has  its  value  been  recognized. 
The  cattle  feeders  of  Illinois  and  Missouri  have  found  that  there  is  no  hay 
which  will  compare  with  the  cow  pea  hay  in  the  fattening  of  beeves  for  the 
export  trade,  and  the  breeders  of  horses  in  Missouri,  and  even  in  the  blue 
grass  region  of  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  have  found  that  pea  vine  hay  will 
promote  the  growth  of  colts  as  no  other  feed  will.  The  Missouri  Experiment 
Station  has  advised  the  farmers  there  to  substitute  the  cow  pea  for  timothy 
as  a  hay  crop.  Its  great  feeding  value  taken  in  connection  with  its  great 
capacity  for  getting  the  aerial  nitrogen  and  fixing  it  in  the  soil  for  the  suc- 
ceeding crop,  places  the  Southern  cow  pea  at  the  very  head  of  all  forage 
crops,  for  all  the  country  south  of  the  40th  parallel  at  least;  and  in 
light,  warm  soils  considerably  north  of  this  parallel.  We  have  had  letters 
from  farmers  in  Southern  Michigan  and  Vermont  who  are  enthusiastic  in 
praise  of  the  value  of  the  Southern  pea  for  their  lands. 

But  the  true  home  of  the  cow  pea  is,  of  course,  in  the  South,  and 
especially  on  the  sandy  soils  of  the  cotton  country  of  the  Southern  coast  re- 
gion. In  this  region  the  cow  pea  flourishes  as  it  does  nowhere  else,  and 
produces  a  hay  crop  which  for  feeding  value  has  no  equal  anywhere,  and 
which,  in  connection  with  the  corn  crop  and  a  permanent  pasture  of  Bermuda 
grass  (which  also  reaches  its  greatest  perfection  in  the  same  region)  enables 
the  cotton  farmer  to  feed  cattle  and  sheep  more  cheaply  than  they  can  be  fed 
in  any  other  part  of  the  whole  country,  and  to  feed  them  right  where  the 
beef  cattle  are  shipped  abroad. 

When  once  the  farmers  of  the  cotton  belt  realize  the  great  advantage 
which  the  cow  pea  gives  them  for  the  economical  feeding  of  stock,  they  will 
get  to  farming  better  and  to  growing  their  staple  more  cheaply  by  reason  of 
a  lesser  dependence  on  the  fertilizer  mixer.  The  cow  pea  not  only  makes 
the  most  valuable  hay,  but  is  the  greatest  of  all  nitrogen  gatherers,  and  will 
enable  the  cotton  farmer  to  build  up  his  soil  more  rapidly  than  the  Northern 
farmer  can  do  it  with  clover.  With,  the  introduction  of  the  early  ripening 
varieties  the  cultivation  of  the  Southern  pea  has  been  extended  far  north  of 


The  Best  Leguminous  Plants — 173 

what  was  formerly  considered  its  limit  for  profit.  Several  peas  are  now  to 
be  had  which  will  ripen  seed  in  60  days  from  the  sowing,  and  will,  in  the 
South,  make  two  crops  in  one  season  on  the  same  land;  while  there  is  hardly 
a  section  of  the  country  where  60  days  of  warm  weather  cannot  be  had.  These 
early  sorts  are  not  as  heavy  vine  makers  as  the  later  ones,  and  hence  will  not 
make  as. heavy  a  crop  of  forage,  but  they  will  make  effective  collectors  of  the 
free  nitrogen  of  the  air,  and  can  easily  be  made  in  most  sections  to  take  for 
a  time  the  place  of  clover  on  a  wheat  stubble  where  it  has  failed.  As  a  food 
plant  the  greatest  value  of  the  pea  will  be  to  the  dairyman,  in  saving  for  him 
the  purchase  of  wheat  bran,  while  at  the  same  time  aiding  him  in  enriching 
his  soil.  Experiments  made  at  the  Delaware  Station  showed  that  cow  pea 
hay  would  easily  take  the  place  of  bran  in  a  rotation  for  milk.  It  was  found 
that  when  cows  were  taken  off  of  a  rotation  in  which  wheat  bran  was  a  con- 
stituent, and  the  same  amount  of  protein  was  supplied  to  them  in  cow  pea 
hay  they  did  not  shrink  in  milk  or  butter  production,  but  when  they  were 
taken  off  from  the  peas  and  returned  to  the  bran  they  at  once  decreased  in 
milk  flow.  The  importance  of  the  fact  thus  demonstrated  can  hardly  be  over 
estimated,  for  even  as  far  north  as  the  southern  part  of  Vermont  we  have 
the  same  report  from  dairymen,  who  say  that  they  find  they  can  no  longer 
afford  to  do  without  the  cow  pea.  The  substitution  of  bran,  which  calls  for 
a  cash  outlay  on  the  part  of  the  dairyman,  by  a  crop  that  helps  him  increase 
the  productiveness  of  his  acres  while  furnishing  him  the  food  that  he  needs, 
will  give  an  increased  profit  to  the  dairy  farmer  that  is  hard  to  estimate. 

To  those  in  the  North  who  are  unacquainted  with  the  Southern  cow  pea, 
we  have  to  say  that  the  plant  is  not  a  true  pea,  as  they  have  long  been  accus- 
tomed to  class  peas.  The  true  pea  is  a  very  hardy  plant  and  well  suited  to 
Northern  conditions.  The  cow  pea  is  more  nearly  allied,  in  relationship  and 
appearance  of  seed  and  plant,  to  the  bean  family,  and  is  a  hot  weather  plant 
which  will  not  endure  the  slightest  frost.  And  yet,  while  the  plant  is  so 
tender,  there  are  some  varieties  which  are  so  hardy  in  the  seed  that  they  will 
remain  in  the  ground  in  the  South  over  winter  and  make  a  volunteer  crop 
the  next  summer.  This  fact  has  led  some  in  the  North  to  suppose  that  the 
seed  can  be  planted  earlier  than  is  usually  advised.  But  it  will  generally  be 
found  that  sowing  the  seed  before  the  ground  is  warm  will  result  in  a  very 
imperfect  stand  and  a  poor  crop.  We  make  these  statements  for  the  benefit 
of  the  large  number  of  people  who  are  continually  writing  to  know  whether 
the  Southern  pea  can  be  sown  along  with  oats  as  the  Canada  pea  is  sown. 
A  little  reflection  will  show  anyone  that  this  cannot  be  done.  Sown  at  the 
time  oats  must  be  sown  in  the  spring,  the  greater  part  of  the  peas  would  rot  in 
the  ground,  and  sown  at  the  time  peas  should  be  sown,  the  oats  would  make 


174 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

a  poor  showing.  The  varieties  of  the  cow  pea  cultivated  in  the  South  are 
almost  innumerable.  Those  which  make  a  heavy  growth  of  vine  are,  as  a 
rule,  too  late  for  cultivation  north  of  Central  Virginia.  But  one  of  the  best 
forage  makers,  the  black  seeded  pea,  can  be  grown  easil}'  as  far  north  as  Cen- 
tral New  Jersey,  and  the  Whippoorwill  or  Speckled  pea,  which  makes  a  fair 
growth  of  vine,  and  is  a  large  cropper  of  peas,  has  succeeded  well  in  Southern 
New  England,  and  the  Warren  Extra  Early  has  ripened  seed  up  on  the  shores 
of  the  Great  Lakes,  and  in  Iowa.  There  are  indications  that  all  the  varieties 
gradually  acclimatize  themselves  if  taken  gradually  northward.  Some  years 
ago  we  sent  several  varieties  of  our  peas  to  Cornell  University  Experiment 
Station,  and  it  was  found  that  the  Black  and  the  Clay  pea  ripened  there  from 
North  Carolina  seed,  while  the  same  varieties  from  seed  raised  in  Louisiana, 
failed  to  ripen.  This  shows  the  importance  of  getting  seed  grown  as  far 
North  as  possible  if  the  crop  is  to  be  grown  in  a  northen  latitude. 

A  few  years  ago  we  had  a  letter  from  a  gentleman  in  Iowa,  who  said  that 
he  moved  there  from  Southern  Missouri,  and  having  been  accustomed  to  the 
Black  Eye  pea  as  a  table  vegetable  he  thought  he  would  try  them  there.  Get- 
ting a  few  seeds  from  Missouri,  he  planted  a  row  in  the  warmest  part  of  his 
garden.  They  grew  well  but  only  one  plant  ripened  any,  and  this  made  but 
three  pods.  He  saved  these  and  planted  them  the  next  season  in  his  garden 
and  every  plant  ripened  a  full  crop.  This  gave  him  about  a  peck  of  seed, 
and  he  planted  two  rows  alongside  his  corn  field.  That  Summer  drought 
and  hot  winds  almost  ruined  the  corn,  while  the  rows  of  peas  grew  with  the 
utmost  luxuriance.  One  of  his  neighbors,  a  cattle  man,  came  over  to  condole 
on  the  great  damage  to  the  corn  crop,  and  was  shown  the  peas.  He  begged 
the  owner  to  save  every  pea,  saying  that  they  would  settle  the  stock  business 
for  Iowa  and  furnish  a  safeguard  against  drought  and  hot  winds. 

A  correspondent  in  Central  Illinois  wrote  that  the  frost  caught  his  peas 
before  he  had  a  chance  to  cut  them,  but  a  bunch  of  cattle  turned  on  the  dead 
peas  got  rolling  fat  before  snow  came,  and  he  was  satisfied  that  they  would 
be  of  inestimable  value,  even  if  none  were  ever  cut.  And  yet  while  this  plant 
has  been  grown  in  a  desultory  way  in  the  South  for  generations,  the  cotton 
farmers,  have  been  slow  in  waking  up  to  the  value  of  the  plant  they  have  at 
hand.  In  many  sections  the  farmers,  recognizing  the  damage  that  was  being 
done  in  the  annual  culture  of  cotton  on  the  same  land,  thought  to  help 
matters  by  what  they  called  "resting"  the  land.  That  is,  they  allowed  the 
land  to  lie  idle  one  year  and  grow  up  in  weeds  and  grass,  to  be  plowed  under 
for  the  next  year's  cotton  crop.  Of  course,  even  this  amount  of  organic 
matter  returned  to  the  land,  and  the  summer  shading  of  the  soil,  was  a  great 
help.     But  the  natural  growth  was  merely  organic  matter,  and  the  weeds 


The  Best  Leguminous  Plants — 175 

and  grass  had  not  the  power  the  legumes  have  to  gather  the  nitrogen  from  the 
air,  and  thus  increase  the  fertility  of  the  soil,  while  adding  a  valuable  food 
crop  for  the  keeping  of  cattle,  which  was  impossible  under  the  resting  method. 

Now,  by  degrees,  the  Southern  farmers  are  finding  out  that  the  best 
rest  which  can  be  given  to  their  land  is  to  keep  it  busy,  growing  crops  that 
will  tend  to  build  up  its  fertility,  while  at  the  same  time  enabling  them  to 
feed  more  stock  and  to  raise  more  and  better  manure.  And  this  is  done,  too, 
by  a  cleansing  crop,  instead  of  the  rest  crop  of  weeds  and  grass,  which  filled 
the  soil  with  seed  for  future  brow  sweatings.  The  old  time  cotton  farmers 
thought  that  farm  rotation  was  a  good  thing  for  the  Xorth  and  the  grain 
growing  districts,  but  that  cotton  was  the  one  crop  which  could  not  be  fitted 
into  an  improving  rotation;  and  to  this  day  the  same  impression  prevails 
among  many  of  the  tobacco  growers  of  the  South.  While  the  fact  is,  that 
no  crops  so  easily  lend  themselves  to  a  regular  and  systematic  rotation, 
whereby  stock  may  be  fed  and  the  farmer  made  gradually  more  and  more 
independent  of  the  fertilizer  mixer. 

There  has  been  a  great  deal  of  inquiry  in  regard  to  the  quantity  of  seed 
of  the  cow  pea  that  should  be  sown  per  acre.  The  quantity  will  depend  on 
the  fertility  of  the  soil  and  the  purpose  for  which  the  crop  is  to  be  applied. 
On  strong  land,  where  the  crop  is  intended  to  be  cut  and  cured  into  hay,  if 
thin  sowing  is  practiced  the  stems  will  grow  too  large  and  stout  to  cure  well. 
Hence,  for  a  hay  crop,  on  strong  land,  the  peas  should  be  sown  at  the  rate  of 
one  and  a  half  bushels  per  acre  if  sown  broadcast.  If  on  thin  land,  and  the 
crop  is  intended  to  be  used  as  a  means  for  soil  improvement,  they  had  better 
be  sown  in  rows  and  cultivated  and  fertilized.  In  this  case  three  pecks  will 
be  abundant  seeding.  On  soil  of  only  fair  fertility  and  where  the  crop  is  to 
l)e  used  for  hay,  one  bushel  sown  broadcast  will  be  sufficient.  There  is  a 
growing  tendency  among  the  most  thoughtful  farmers  to  plant  the  crop  in 
rows  and  cultivate  it,  as  many  are  satisfied  that  they  can  get  a  better  crop 
either  of  peas  or  forage  in  this  way,  and  one  intelligent  farmer  in  Virginia 
says  that  after  years  of  experimenting  he- gets  the  best  results  from  one  peck 
per  acre,  drilled  in  rows  and  cultivated  like  corn.  Since  the  seed  is  gener- 
ally high  priced  it  is  important  that  none  shall  be  wasted,  and  it  will  be  wise 
for  farmers,  to  experiment  on  their  own  soils  to  test  this  point.  ^Vhile  the 
cow  pea  can  be  used  in  the  renovation  of  worn  soils  more  easily  than  red 
clover,  because  of  the  fact  that  it  will  thrive  on  land  where  clover  will  not, 
still  its  growth  can  be  greatly  enhanced  and  the  work  it  will  do  for  us  greatly 
increased  by  the  judicious  application  of  phosphoric  acid  and  potash,  and 
thus  we  can  get  more  forage  to  feed  while  getting  more  fertility  added  to  the 
soil.     The  experiments  we  have  described  at  the  Tennessee  Station  show  how 


176 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

fully  the  protein  needed  in  a  ration  for  fattening  beeves  can  be  supplied  by 
the  cow  pea  for  little  more  than  half  the  cost  of  cotton  seed  meal,  and  better 
beef  produced.  From  the  products  of  his  farm,  then,  and  from  crops  that 
improve  his  land,  the  Southern  farmer  can  make  money  in  feeding  beef 
rattle  easier  than  the  farmer  of  the  North  and  West,  and  there  will  be  no 
permanent  improvement  in  the  Southern  farming  until  there  is  more  of  this 
stock  feeding  and  less  of  spending  money  for  nitrogenous  fertilizers  we  do 
not  need  to  buy  if  we  farm  aright.  If  one  half  of  the  millions  of  dollars  the 
cotton  States  of  the  Atlantic  seaboard  spend  every  year  for  fertilizers  con- 
taining nitrogen  for  the  cotton  crop,  was  spent  on  phosphoric  acid  and 
potash,  and  applied  to  the  pea  crop  preceding  the  cotton  crop,  there  would 
soon  be  a  vast  improvement  in  the  cotton  crop,  half  the  money  would  be  saved, 
and  in  a  short  time  more  than  half  could  be  saved  by  the  feeding  of  the 
abundant  forage  produced.  One  intelligent  observer  has  said  that  the  dif- 
ference between  the  Carolinas  and  Texas  was  in  the  stock  feeding.  Texas, 
with  her  empire  of  fresh  soil,  grows  more  cotton  than  any  other  State,  and 
yet  Texas  raises  three  beeves  for  every  bale  of  cotton  she  grows;  while  the 
Carolinas  raise  one  animal  for  every  three  bales  of  cotton  produced.  Until, 
by  the  proper  use  of  the  great  forage  plant  with  which  the  South  is  blessed, 
the  proportion  is  put  in  the  same  shape  it  is  in  Texas,  there  will  be  no  per- 
manent improvement  in  the  soils  of  the  Carolinas. 


VETCHES. 

Vicia  sativa  and  some  others  of  the  same  genus  have  become  very  gen- 
erally naturalized  in  the  South,  and  grow  freely  every  winter  in  all  vacant 
spots,  and  at  times  among  grass  and  other  herbage.  These  are  rather  light 
croppers,  however.  More  recently  attention  has  been  directed  to  another  of 
the  species  of  this  genus,  vicia  villosa,  the  hairy  or  sand  vetch.  This  plant 
has  been  found  to  succeed  under  very  diverse  conditions,  from  the  far  North 
to  Gulf  States.  Its  rapid  growth  and  its  hardiness  in  a  great  range  of  cli- 
matic conditions  renders  that  at  present  the  most  promising  winter  growing 
legume  we  have,  and  it  will  probably  take  the  place  we  had  hoped  the  crimson 
clover  would  take  all  over  the  country.  While  the  value  of  the  hairy  vetch  is 
not  as  yet  fully  decided,  it  is  certainly  the  most  promising  plant  for  its  place 
we  have  yet  tried,  and  we  trust  that  future  trials  will  confirm  this  good  opin- 
ion. If  allowed  to  ripen  seed,  this  plant  will  seed  the  land  and  reproduce 
the  crop  the  following  fall.  But  being  a  winter  growing  plant,  it  can  never 
become  a  troublesome  weed. 


The  Best  Leguminous  Plants — 177 

burr  clover. 

Another  legume  which  has  been  attracting  a  good  deal  of  attention  of 
late  in  the  South  is  the  burr  clover,  medicago  denticulata,  a  sort  of  annual 
alfalfa.  This,  like  the  vetch,  seeds  the  ground  and  "volunteers''  year  after 
year.  It  is  a  winter  growing  plant  and  not  a  very  heavy  forage  maker,  but  in 
the  South  will  furnish  stock  a  green  bite  at  almost  any  time  during  the 
winter. 

THE   SOY   BEAN. 

This  plant  is  a  native  of  Southeastern  Asia.  Botanically  it  is  called 
glycine  hispida,  and  has  gotten  the  incorrect  name  of  soja  bean.  It  is  an 
important  article  of  food  in  Asia,  particularly  in  Japan,  where  there  are  as 
many  varieties  in  cultivation  as  we  have  of  cow  peas  in  the  South.  Though 
the  plant  was  introduced  into  England  in  the  eighteenth  century  little  inter- 
est was  excited  in  it,  and  it  was  not  till  very  recently  that  experiments  have 
been  made  in  this  country  and  in  Europe,  which  have  demonstrated  its  value 
as  a  soil  improver  and  a  forage  plant.  The  soy  is  an  erect  growing  plant, 
growing  in  good  soil  to  the  height  of  five  feet,  and  bearing  a  profuse  crop  of 
hairy  pods.  The  different  varieties  are  distinguished  by  the  color  of  the 
seeds  and  the  time  it  takes  for  the  crop  to  mature.  For  a  northern  latitude 
and  a  short  season,  the  Early  White  is  perhaps  the  best,  but  it  makes  little 
forage  and  drops  its  leaves  very  early.  Medium  Early  Green  is  about  the  best 
for  hay  making  purposes,  and  there  are  later  varieties  which  are  valuable 
in  the  South.  Ijike  all  other  legumes  the  soy  thrives  best  on  a  soil  well 
supplied  with  phosphoric  acid,  potash  and  lime,  and  while  it  gives  a  heavier 
crop  on  strong  soils,  it  will  thrive  on  land  too  poor  to  make  a  crop  of  clover. 
In  fact,  the  plant  thrives  on  a  great  variety  of  soils.  One  of  the  most  valu- 
able features  of  the  soy  is  its  ability  to  withstand  droughts  that  would  kill 
corn.  The  upright  habit  of  the  plant  makes  it  easier  to  handle  in  harvesting. 
The  seed  of  the  soy  may  be  sown  broadcast,  but  the  best  crops  are  usually 
grown  where  the  beans  are  drilled  in  rows,  like  ordinary  beans,  and  well 
cultivated.  The  Massachusetts  Station  found  that  while  the  soy,  like  other 
legumes,  needs  potash,  it  does  best  when  it  is  supplied  in  the  form  of  a 
muriate.  When  sown  in  drills,  half  a  bushel  of  seed  will  suffice  for  one  acre 
of  land ;  when  sown  broadcast  twice  as  much,  or  more,  will  be  needed.  When 
sown  for  hay  the  ordinary  wheat  drill  will  put  them  in  about  right,  and  the 
hay  will  be  more  easily  cured  when  the  plants  are  grown  thickly.  The  crop 
should  be  cut  for  hay  as  soon  as  the  pods  are  mature,  but  not  dry  and  hard. 
Unlike  the  cow  pea,  the  hard  round  seed  of  the  soy  admits  of  the  crop  being 


178 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

threshed  for  the  seed  with  an  ordinary  machine,  which  would  split  most  of 
the  cow  peas.  A  crop  of  two  tons  or  more  of  hay  can  be  made  on  land  in 
fair  state  of  fertility,  and  if  the  season  is  very  dry  the  soy  will  make  a  heavier 
crop  than  the  cow  pea,  but  in  our  experience  the  hay  has  not  as  great  feeding 
value  as  that  from  the  cow  pea,  and  there  is  far  more  waste  of  woody 
stems,  etc. 

We  are  inclined  to  believe  that  the  soy  bean  is  particularly  well  adapted 
to  the  making  of  silage,  and  that  the  mixing  of  it  with  corn  silage  will  be 
found  to  be  the  most  economical  and  profitable  mode  of  using  the  crop. 
Another  use  that  can  be  made  of  the  soy  is  to  feed  it  down  by  hogs  on  the  land 
where  it  grows.  If  fed  off  by  sheep  and  hogs,  the  plant  will  make  a  very 
rapid  improvement  of  the  soil,  and  it  may  be  that  under  some  conditions  this 
may  be  the  best  use  that  can  be  made  of  either  the  soy  or  the  cow  pea.  At 
the  Storrs  Station,  in  Connecticut,  the  analysis  of  the  soy  places  it  far  ahead 
of  the  cow  pea  in  manurial  value,  but  the  analysis  is  open  to  the  objection 
that  the  soy  there  attained  maturity,  while  the  cow  pea  was  not  at  its  best. 
In  the  South,  the  fertilizing  constituents  in  the  two  would  not  be  far  apart, 
and  the  weight  of  crop  would  usually  be  in  favor  of  the  peas.  In  the  North 
it  can  be  used  as  a  green  manure  crop  if  accompanied  with  a  dressing  of  lime. 
But,  as  a  rule,  green  manuring  is  poor  practice  anywhere,  and  is  ruinous 
to  the  soil  in  the  South. 

THE   VELVET   BEAN. 

In  general  appearance  this  plant  closely  resembles  the  ranker  growing 
varieties  of  the  cow  pea,  but  the  blooms  differ  and  the  pods  are  very  different 
from  those  of  the  cow  peas,  being  shorter  and  thickly  covered  with  velvety 
hairs,  from  which  the  plant  gets  its  name.  It  is  a  member  of  the  same  great 
order  as  the  cow  pea,  and,  like  it,  can  get  nitrogen  through  the  agency  of  its 
root  tubercles.  There  is  no  plant  of  its  class  which  makes  an  equal  amount 
of  growth  to  the  velvet  bean ;  and  it  will  furnish  more  organic  matter  to  the 
soil  than  any  other  plant  in  the  same  climate.  But  it  is  unfortunately  a 
plant  that  requires  a  very  long  season  for  maturing,  and  can  never  attain 
the  importance  of  the  cow  pea  north  of  the  Gulf  coast.  It  will,  in  a  favor- 
able season,  mature  its  seed  as  far  north  as  Central-Eastern  North  Carolina, 
but  to  do  this  there  it  must  be  planted  in  April,  and  will  then  mature  about 
the  first  of  October.  This  long  season  precludes  its  use  after  small  grain 
and  among  corn  as  the  cow  pea  is  used,  and  it  will  never  compete  with  the 
cow  pea  north  of  Florida. 

At  the  Alabama  Station  crops  of  oats  were  sown,  after  turning  under  vel- 
vet bean  vines  and  velvet  bean  stubble,  cow  pea  vines  and  cow  pea  stubble,  and 


The  Best  Leguminous  Plants — 179 

also  after  the  natural  growth  of  crab  grass  and  weeds  were  turned  under. 
Where  the  vines  were  turned  under,  the  yield  of  oats  was  28.6  bushels  per 
acre  and  1200  pounds  of  straw.  Where  only  the  stubble  was  plowed  under, 
the  yield  was  38.7  bushels  per  acre  and  1672  pounds  of  straw.  Similar 
results  were  obtained  from  the  plowing  under  of  the  cow  peas.  The  average 
crop  of  oats  after  the  velvet  beans  was  33.6  bushels  per  acre,  and  after  the  cow 
peas  31.6  bushels,  while  on  the  land  where  only  the  natural  growth  was 
plowed  under,  the  crop  was  7.1  bushels  per  acre.  This  is  one  of  the  most 
striking  evidences  of  the  value  of  the  legumes  that  we  have  seen.  We  would 
call  attention  to  the  increase  in  the  crop  from  the  plowing  under  of  the 
stubble  rather  than  the  whole  plant.  Not  only  was  the  crop  of  hay  sacrificed, 
but  the  crop  of  oats  was  much  smaller  where  the  entire  crop  was  bucied. 
Another  commentary  on  the  folly  of  green  manuring  as  commonly  practiced. 
The  turning  under  of  a  mass  of  vegetation  in  the  fall  renders  it  impossible 
to  get  the  soil  into  the  best  condition  for  the  winter  grain,  and  no  matter 
whether  it  be  oats  or  wheat  the  result  will  always  be  better  when  the  crop 
is  saved  as  forage  and  only  the  stubble  turned.  The  amount  of  nitrogen  the 
velvet  bean  can  get  in  a  favorable  climate  is  well  shown  in  the  Alabama 
bulletin.  A  field  of  velvet  beans  was  grown  on  very  poor  land,  with  240 
pounds  of  acid  phosphate  and  48  pounds  of  muriate  of  potash  per  acre.  The 
yield  of  green  forage  was  19,040  pounds  per  acre.  The  weight  of  the  hay 
after  five  days  curing  was  8,240  pounds  per  acre.  Samples  were  taken  for 
analysis,  and  it  was  found  that  the  hay  and  the  roots  stubble  left  in  the 
ground  there  were  201.2  pounds  of  nitrogen  per  acre.  This  was  equal  to  that 
contained  in  2,800  pounds  of  cotton  seed  meal.  "As  the  soil  was  very  poor, 
the  greater  part  of  this  nitrogen  must  have  been  obtained  from  the  air.  The 
yield  of  hay  on  this  field  was  unusually  large,  but  even  if  half  this  amount 
be  taken  as  an  average  yield,  we  must  have  still  a  most  impressive  lesson  as 
to  the  value  of  leguminous  plants  for  storing  up  nirtogenous  fertilizing 
material  for  the  enrichment  of  the  soil."  It  is  evident,  then,  that  it  would 
be  a  waste  for  any  farmer  to  buy  nitrogenous  fertilizer  after  the  growing  of 
such  a  crop.  While  the  velvet  bean  will  not  mature  seed  with  any  certainty 
north  of  the  Gulf  States,  T  am  decidedly  of  the  opinion  that  as  far  north  as 
Southeast  Virginia  the  plant  can  be  grown  profitably  for  the  reclamation 
of  run  down  lands,  but  for  hay  purposes  it  cannot  compete  with  the  cow  pea 
anywhere  north  of  Florida. 

THE   PEANUT. 

The  peanut,  while  grown  mainly  as  a  commercial  crop,  is,  nevertheless, 
one  of  the  legumes ;  which,  if  it  were  properly  used,  would  rank  with  the  soil 


180 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

improvers  and  nitrogen  collectors.  We  were  shown,  but  a  few  days  since,  a 
plant  of  the  common  Virginia  peanut,  which  had  more  nitrogen  nodules  on 
its  roots  than  any  we  have  ever  seen.  The  whole  of  the  roots  of  the  plant 
were  completely  covered  with  these  nodules.  As  commonly  used  the  soil  gets 
little  of  the  benefit  of  this  nitrogen  collecting  in  the  peanut  crop,  since  the 
whole  plant,  roots  and  all,  is  removed  from  the  soil.  By  a  rational  system 
of  stock  feeding  on  the  peanut  farms,  and  a  good  rotaion  of  crops,  there  is 
no  doubt  that  the  crop  could  be  made  to  aid  the  farmer  in  the  building  up 
of  his  soil,  instead  of  its  depreciation.  At  any  rate,  it  is  evident  that  the 
peanut,  like  all  other  legumes,  is  able  to  get  its  own  supply  of  nitrogen  from 
the  air.  Nitrogen,  as  is  well  known,  is  the  most  expensive  element  when 
purchased  in  a  commercial  fertilizer,  and  the  farmer  whose  money  crop  is  one 
of  the  nitrogen  collectors  has  a  great  advantage  over  those  who  have  to  get 
their  nitrogen  from  plants  that  give  a  smaller  cash  return  at  the  time  being. 
If  the  peanut  was  grown  as  we  grow  cow  peas  and  clover,  and  returned  to  the 
soil  through  feeding  to  animals,  or  by  plowing  the  growth  into  the  soil,  it 
would  be  one  of  the  best  soil  improvers ;  while,  as  it  used,  it  is  the  means  for 
reducing  the  fertility  of  the  land  on  which  it  is  grown.  The  chief  source 
of  the  peanut  crop  of  the  United  States  is  the  crop  grown  in  Virginia, 
North  Carolina  and  Tennessee.  Much  of  the  soil  in  these  States  is  admirably 
adapted  to  the  successful  growth  of  the  crop,  and  for  many  years  the  crop 
was  a  very  profitable  one,  but  of  late  years  there  has  been  a  combination  of 
conditions  which  have  made  it  far  less  profitable  than  formerly.  The  same 
causes  which  have  brought  unproductiveness  to  other  crops  of  the  South,  the 
constant  cultivation  of  the  crop  on  the  same  land,  the  utter  absence  of  a 
rational  rotation  of  crops,  and  the  complete  removal  of  the  plant,  roots  and 
top,  from  the  soil,  with  a  lack  of  attention  of  the  proper  fertilization,  together 
with  the  commercial  conditions  which  have  placed  the  growers  at  the  mercy 
of  a  combination,  or  trust,  have  all  combined  to  make  the  crop  unprofitable 
to  the  average  farmer.  Where  crops  of  even  100  bushels  per  acre  were 
formerly  made  the  present  average  is  put  by  competent  authority,  at  20 
bushels  per  acre.  The  same  causes  which  have  made  the  average  cotton  crop 
in  the  older  cotton  States  less  than  one-half  what  it  would  be  with  good 
farming,  have  reduced  the  average  of  the  peanut  growers.  The  tables  of 
analyses  of  the  peanut  products,  which  we  give  in  the  Appendix  to  this 
volume,  will  show  the  great  value  of  the  crop,  and  the  great  drain  it  makes 
on  the  soil,  by  the  present  system,  or  rather  lack  of  system,  in  its  culture. 
The  food  value  of  the  peanut  is  shown  to  be  high,  since  the  kernels  have  an 
average  of  29  per  cent,  of  protein,  49  per  cent,  of  fat,  and  14  per  cent,  of 
carbohydrates,  which  shows  that  they  rank  higher  than  most  other  concen- 


The  Best  Leguminous  Plants — 181 

trated  foods  like  soy  beans,  cotton  seed,  etc.  The  tables  show  that  the  vines 
have  a  higher  feeding  value  than  timothy  hay,  while  the  hulls  are  far  better 
feed  than  cotton  seed  hulls,  which  are  so  largely  used  for  feed  in  the  South. 
Peanut  meal,  or  the  ground  product  after  the  oil  is  extracted,  is  one  of  the 
most  concentrated  foods,  ranking  with  cotton  seed  meal,  linseed  meal,  etc., 
and  commonly  ahead  of  any  of  them.  The  kernels  have  a  manurial  value 
equal  to  that  of  cotton  seed,  and  the  vines  are  nearly  as  valuable  for  manure 
as  those  of  the  cow  pea.  And  yet,  like  all  legumes,  the  peanut  draws 
heavily  on  the  mineral  constituents  of  the  soil ;  and  while  getting  the  nitrogen 
in  abundance  from  the  air  this  is  mainly  lost  to  the  soil  through  the  mode  of 
handling  the  crop.  Then,  too,  the  crop  is  saved  at  a  late  period  of  the  year, 
and  the  clean,  cultivated  ground  is  left  bare  during  the  rainy  winters  of  the 
South,  and  the  nitrates  that  have  formed  are  rapidly  leached  away. 

varieties  of  the  peanut. 

The  most  widely  known  and  popular  variety  is  the  running  variety 
known  as  the  Virginia.  This  is  the  peanut  generally  sold  for  eating  by  the 
roasters.  There  is  a  bunch  variety  of  the  same  grown  in  Virghiia,  the  pods 
of  which  are  very  similar  to  the  running  sort.  A  white  nut,  similar  to  the 
Virginia,  is  grown  in  Tennessee,  and  also  an  early  bunch  red  variety.  The 
African  variety  grown  about  Wilmington,  N".  C,  is  smaller  but  heavier,  and 
makes  more  oil  than  the  White  Virginia  nut.  The  Spanish  variety  is  also 
largely  grown  in  North  Carolina  and  elsewhere  in  the  South.  It  grows 
upright  and  makes  its  nuts  close  to  the  root,  and  from  being  planted  close 
can  make  a  heavier  crop  per  acre.  This  variety,  growing  its  nuts  all  in  a 
cluster  near  the  base  of  the  plant,  is  more  easily  harvested  than  any  other. 
On  a  warm,  light  soil  it  is  probable  that  the  peanut  will  thrive  where  Indian 
corn  can  be  grown,  though  the  climatic  conditions  in  the  South  Atlantic  States 
are  more  favorable  than  northward  and  westward.  It  is  essential  that  the 
soil  be  light  and  mellow,  and  of  a  light  color  to  prevent  the  darkening  of  the 
hulls.  Lime  is  an  essential  to  the  success  of  the  peanut,  and  a  regular  rota- 
tion in  which  the  application  of  lime  is  comparatively  frequent  is  best  for 
the  crop.  Land  near  the  coast  that  has  had  heavy  applications  of  shell  marl 
is  particularly  well  adapted  to  the  peanut.  Besides  the  application  of  lime 
on  soils  where  there  is  not  naturally  a  supply,  the  chief  needs  of  the  peanut 
crop  are  phosphoric  acid  and  potash.  The  common  practice,  in  some  sections, 
has  been  to  give  heavy  applications  of  lime,  but  it  is  evident  that  with  a  good 
three  year  rotation  of  peanuts,  corn  and  winter  oats,  a  moderate  liming  once 
in  three  years  will  be  all  sufficient.     The  growth  of  some  winter  growing 


182 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

legume,  like  the  crimson  clover  or  hairy  vetch,  will  have  a  good  effect  in 
restoring  the  humus,  which  most  of  the  peanut  lands  are  very  deficient  in. 
With  a  corn  crop  following  the  peanut  crop  after  the  soil  has  had,  during  the 
winter,  the  growth  of  some  kind  of  green  matter,  even  if  only  rye,  and  all 
the  home-made  accumulation  of  manure  is  used  on  the  corn  crop,  and  cow 
peas  are  sown  among  the  corn  at  last  working,  a  good  crop  of  oats  can  be 
harvested  the  following  season,  and  the  stubble  planted  at  once  in  peas,  to 
be  cut  for  hay  to  feed  the  stock.  Give  the  pea  stubble  a  coat  of  lime  and  let 
it  lie  till  time  to  prepare  for  the  peanut  crop.  Then,  with  a  liberal  dressing 
of  acid  phosphate  and  kainit  in  equal  parts,  there  is  no  doubt  that  heavy 
crops  can  be  grown.  Many  of  the  peanut  growers  have  a  most  unreasoning 
prejudice  against  the  cow  pea,  because,  we  suppose,  of  some  injudicious  use 
of  the  pea  as  green  manure  in  the  past.  But  properly  used,  there  is  no 
reason  whatever  that  the  cow  pea  should  not  be  as  useful  a  help  to  the  peanut 
grower  as  to  the  farmer  in  other  crops.  With  such  a  rotation,  and  plenty  of 
stock  to  eat  the  forage  grown,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  peanut  crop  could  be 
restored  to  its  old  time  production,  and  be  the  means,  like  other  legumes,  of 
building  up,  instead  of  diminishing,  the  productiveness  of  the  land.  Various 
formulas  hav'e  been  proposed  for  fertilizers  for  the  peanut  crop,  all  of  which 
give  some  form  of  nitrogen,  such  as  cotton  seed  meal  or  dried  blood.  These 
may  be  useful  in  the  present  state  of  peanut  culture,  but  with  the  rotation 
proposed  there  will  be  no  need  for  the  purchase  of  nitrogen  for  the  crop.  In 
some  parts  of  the  peanut  section  it  may  be  desirable  to  lengthen  the  rotation 
and  introduce  cotton  between  the  cow  peas  and  the  peanuts,  and  to  use  the 
cotton  stubble  for  the  peanuts.  But  whatever  the  rotation,  let  it  be  duly 
considered  and  adhered  to,  and  attention  given  to  the  improvement  of  the  soil 
as  the  best  means  for  the  improvement  of  the  crop. 

ALFALFA. 

One  of  the  most  valuable  of  all  the  legumes,  where  it  succeeds,  is  alfalfa, 
or  lucerne,  as  it  is  sometimes  called.  Botanically  the  plant  is  Medicago 
Sativa.  This  plant  differs  from  most  of  the  legumes  we  have  mentioned  in 
the  fact  that  it  is  a  true  perennial,  and  remains  productive  year  after  year 
for  an  indefinite  period.  Alfalfa  seems  to  be  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  arid 
regions  of  the  AVest,  and  it  has  been  suggested  that  its  success  there  is  largely 
due  to  the  fact  that  the  lime  has  not  been  washed  out  of  the  soils,  as  it  is 
found  that  the  plant  uses  lime  freely,  and  will  hardly  succeed  in  the  Eastern 
States  without  the  application  of  lime.  Another  reason  is  the  fact  that  the 
plant  sends  its  roots  down  several  feet  in  the  soil,  and  can  endure  drought 


The  Best  Leguminous  Plants — 183 

better  than  a  shallow  rooted  plant.  Experiments  in  the  culture  of  alfalfa  in 
the  Eastern  States  have,  as  a  rule,  not  been  successful,  but  in  some  instances 
there  has  been  great  success.  It  seems  evident  that  a  soil  underlaid  with  a 
compact  clay  subsoil  is  a  poor  place  for  alfalfa,  since  it  cannot  strike  its 
long  roots  downward.  Where  there  is  a  permeable  subsoil,  and  the  land  has 
a  sufficient  amount  of  fertility,  there  is  no  doubt  that  good  crops  of  alfalfa 
can  be  grown  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  country.  Mr.  J.  E.  Wing,  of  Ohio, 
recently  told  me  that  he  had  found  that  the  chief  difficulty  in  getting  a  good 
start  with  it  is  the  fact  that  in  the  first  season's  growth  the  plant  is  rather 
feeble,  and  the  weeds  are  apt  to  crowd  it  to  death ;  but  that  if,  as  the  plants 
start  and  the  weeds  start,  the  mower  is  run  over  it,  the  plant  takes  on  new 
life  and  energy,  and  success  follows.  He  thinks  it  will  inevitably  fail  if  not 
mown  off  the  first  summer.  Then,  if  in  the  fall  a  dressing  of  Kme  is  applied, 
we  are  of  the  opinion  that  in  any  ordinarily  fertile  soil  alfalfa  may  be  made 
to  succeed.  But  it  is  not  a  plant  suited  to  use  in  a  short  and  improving  rota- 
tion, and  should  be  allotted  a  place  where  it  can  remain  permanently.  The 
Colorado  Station  places  the  manurial  value  of  the  stubble  of  alfalfa,  after 
the  crop  is  cut,  taking  this  to  include  six  inches  below  the  surface,  to  be  $19.28 
per  acre.  From  the  heavy  stooling  nature  of  the  plant  the  stubble  is  heavier 
than  in  other  legumes,  and  the  Colorado  estimate  is  based  on  the  assumption 
that  there  will  be  2.86  tons  per  acre  of  this  organic  matter.  Rather  a  large 
estimate,  it  appears  to  us,  but  perhaps  not  too  large  for  Colorado.  Bulletin 
No.  35  of  the  Colorado  Experiment  Station  is  a  very  exhaustive  treatise  on 
the  alfalfa  plant,  and  can  be  referred  to  by  those  interested.  After  failing 
with  the  plant  all  our  life  we  will  try  again  with  Mr.  Wing's  suggestion  about 
the  summer  mowing,  and  hope  to  be  able  to  have  a  patch  of  alfalfa. 

We  take  the  following  from  the  Report  of  the  Kansas  Board  of  Agricul- 
ture for  1900.  In  regard  to  experience  with  alfalfa  on  thin,  sandy  soil  the 
report  quotes  from  the  letter  of  Mr.  Patch  as  follows :  "Our  soil  is  sandy,  jack 
pine  land,  and  badly  run  out  of  nitrogen  and  humus.  I  sowed  two  and  a  half 
acres  to  alfalfa,  securing  an  even  stand,  which  at  first  looked  very  promising. 
After  a  slow  growth,  it  seemed  to  come  almost  to  a  standstill,  with  a  sickly, 
yellow  appearance.  Before  seeding,  a  strip  of  perhaps  half  an  acre,  was  given 
a  liberal  dressing  of  lime.  When  winter  set  in,  the  plants  had  reached  an  aver- 
age height  of  six  inches,  while  on  the  unlimed  portion  they  should  scarcely 
average  more  than  two  inches.  I  searched  in  vain  for  tubercles  on  the  roots. 
When  Prof.  King  saw  the  field  he  offered  to  send  some  earth  from  the  alfalfa 
field  at  the  Experiment  Station.  It  wintered  with  a  slight  covering  of  snow, 
enduring  on  two  nights  a  temperature  of  48  degrees  below  zero.  When  the 
earth  arrived  from  Madison,  I  sowed  some  of  it  broadcast,  and  some  I  trailed- 


184 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

in  straight  lines  across  the  field,  and  some  in  contact  with  the  roots  of  selected 
plants.  In  about  two  weeks  the  plants  in  places  adjacent  to  the  places  of  in- 
oculation began  to  take  on  a  healthy,  green  color  and  more  vigorous  growth. 
Digging  about  the  plants  I  soon  found  tubercles.  Some  reached  18  inches  in 
height  by  July,  when  it  was  cut.  Our  soil  is  evidently  unfitted  for  the  profit- 
able growth  of  alfalfa,  containing  almost  no  lime,  and  too  much  iron."  The 
report  adds  that  "This  is  a  condition  of  soil  which  is  seldom  found  in  Kansas, 
where  the  springs,  wells  and  creeks  are  almost  universally  supplied  with 
'hard^  water.  It  is  possible  that  the  failure  of  the  bacteria  to  spread  on  the 
unlimed  soil  was  due  to  an  acid  in  the  soil  which  needed  to  be  neutralized  by 
an  alkali  such  as  lime."  We  should  have  said  that  the  experiments  of  Mr. 
Patch  were  made  in  Wisconsin,  though  quoted  in  the  Kansas  report.  It 
shows  what  we  have  before  said,  that  the  great  reason  for  the  failure  of  alfalfa 
eastward  has  been  the  lack  of  lime  more  than  anything  else,  and  the  failure 
to  keep  it  mown  the  first  season  to  keep  down  the  weed-growth,  and  to  invig- 
orate the  alfalfa.  It  seems  probable,  then,  that  as  we  learn  the  needs  of  the 
plant,  that  alfalfa  will  be  made  a  success  in  the  East  to  a  far  greater  extent 
than  it  has  been.  The  report  states  that  alfalfa  has  been  successfully  sown  in 
Kansas  every  month  from  March  to  September.  When  the  ground  is  not 
weedy,  spring  seeding  has  been  successful,  but  the  preference  seems  to  be 
for  fall  seeding.  Alfalfa  seed  should  always  be  fresh,  and  old  seed  is  a  com- 
mon cause  of  failure.  The  advice  is  to  use  about  20  pounds  of  seed  per  acre, 
but  as  low  as  8  to  10  pounds  have  been  used  with  success.  The  mower  should 
be  run  over  the  young  alfalfa  two  or  three  times  the  first  summer  to  keep 
down  the  weeds;  if  a  good  stand  is  there  the  second  season  it  will  be  able  to 
take  care  of  the  weeds.  Alfalfa  should  be  handled  in  hay  making  pretty 
much  as  clover  hay  is  made,  and  should  always  be  gotten  in  without  rain  and 
stored  under  cover,  for  no  hay  is  more  easily  ruined  by  rain. 


CHAPTER  XXII. 
SOME  MINOR  CROPS. 

OATS. 

The  oat  crop  is  seldom  the  money  crop  of  the  farm.  Still  it  has  a  great 
value  in  the  agriculture  of  all  parts  of  the  country,  because  of  its  value  as  a 
food  crop  for  the  farm  teams  and  as  a  part  of  a  well  devised  rotation.  The 
oat  is  a  plant  better  adapted  to  the  conditions  of  a  cool  climate  than  a  warm 
one,  and  hence  the  effort  to  grow  oats  in  the  South  in  the  same  manner  as 
they  are  grown  in  the  North  generally  results  in  failure,  while  observance  of 
the  needs  of  the  plant  would  make  the  crop  a  success  in  the  South  as  well  as 
in  the  North.  In  all  sections  south  of  Washington,  the  oat  crop  should  be 
a  fall  sown  crop.  It  thus  makes  its  growth  during  the  cool  season  of  the 
year  and  matures  before  the  summer  heat  gets  excessive,  while  spring  sown 
oats  in  the  South  are  checked  in  their  growth  by  warm  weather  and  fail  to  de- 
velop properly,  making  a  light  and  chaffy  grain.  Long  culture  in  this  way, 
and  "the  survival  of  the  fittest"  have  developed  varieties  of  a  more  hardy 
nature,  and  better  able  to  withstand  the  winter  cold  than  the  varieties  com- 
monly sown  in  spring  in  the  North.  Such  is  the  hardiness  of  these  varieties 
that  many  Northern  farmers  have  of  late  years  found  that  the  Southern  win- 
ter oats  are  better  for  their  early  sowing  in  the  spring.  Some  time  since  a 
reader  of  one  of  the  leading  agricultural  papers  asked  the  editor  for  informa- 
tion in  regard  to  winter  oats.  He  replied  that  there  were  no  such  things  as 
winter  oats,  and  that  the  so-called  winter  oats  were  simply  the  common  oats 
sown  in  the  South  in  the  fall.  If  that  editor  were  to  come  into  the  Upper 
South  and  sow  in  the  fall  the  same  oats  that  the  Northern  farmers  are  sowing 
in  the  spring,  he  would  soon  find  that  there  is  some  difference,  for  his  North- 
ern spring  oats  would  be  destroyed  by  a  freeze  that  would  not  check  the 
Southern  varieties.  Some  years  ago  a  friend  of  ours  in  Southern  Virginia 
came  to  the  same  conclusion,  and  in  the  fall,  instead  of  sowing  the  usual 
Virginia  winter  turf  oats,  he  sowed  some  oats  that  he  had  bought  from  the 

(186) 


186 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

North  to  sell  for  feed  in  his  store.  The  result  was  that  the  oats  came  up 
and  looked  beautiful  in  the  fall  and  were  killed  before  Christmas,  while  the 
A'irginia  oats  all  around  him  were  as  green  as  ever.  Of  late  years  there  has 
])ven  some  inquiry  in  regard  to  winter  oats  in  the  North,  and  farmers  there 
have  been  inclined  to  try  them.  In  some  winters  when  snow  is  al)undant 
and  the  weather  not  too  severe,  they  might  survive,  but  the  chances  are  that 
fall  sown  oats  will  not  succeed  where  the  mercury  goes  below  zero  in  winter. 
Even  in  the  South  they  are  apt  to  be  injured  by  severe  weather  if  sown  too 
late  to  get  properly  tillered  and  strong  before  the  setting  in  of  cold.  Hence, 
while  wheat  in  the  South  should  never  be  sown  till  after  frost,  the  oats  crop 
should  always  go  in  the  ground  in  September,  if  possible,  for  the  best  results. 
Sown  at  this  time  the  crop  is  a  reasonably  certain  one  anywhere  south  of 
Washington  City,  and  all  over  the  South  is  far  better  than  the  spring  sown 
crop. 

In  many  sections  the  oats  crop  comes  in  as  a  part  of  the  rotation  of  crops 
preparatory  to  the  sowing  of  wheat.  In  many  parts  of  the  North  the  sowing 
of  wheat  after  corn  is  not  satisfactory,  as  it  cannot  be  done  early  enough  for 
the  best  success  there.  Hence  the  common  practice  is  to  sow  the  oats  on  the 
corn  stubble  in  the  spring,  and  to  fallow  the  stubble  after  harvest,  as  a  prepar- 
ation for  the  wheat  crop  in  the  fall.  While  this  fallow  makes  a  good  prepara- 
tion for  the  wheat  it  might  be  a  great  improvement  in  the  warmer  part  of  the 
Middle  States  to  sow  cow  peas  after  the  oats,  with  a  heavy  application  of  acid 
phosphate  and  potash,  cut  them  for  hay  in  September  and  then  at  once  disc 
the  ground  fine  for  the  wheat  crop.  This  will  give  a  fine  hay  crop  and  at  the 
same  time  put  the  land  into  better  condition  for  a  wheat  crop  than  if  the  peas 
were  not  sown. 

Then,  too,  there  may  be  an  improvement  on  the  practice  of  putting  the 
oats  on  the  corn  land  in  the  spring.  It  is  now  generally  acknowledged  that 
the  nitrates  leach  rapidly  out  of  bare  soil  during  the  winter,  but  that  if  there 
is  a  cover  of  green  vegetation  in  winter,  the  loss  is  slight,  if  any.  Now,  in 
leaving  the  corn  stubble  for  the  oats  in  the  spring,  the  land  is  subjected  to 
this  loss  of  nitrates  which  might  be  held  there  in  green  cover  plants.  Hence, 
where  the  spring  oat  crop  follows  the  corn,  it  would  be  far  better  to  sow  crim- 
son clover  among  the  corn  at  the  last  working,  so  that  it  will  make  for  cover 
crop  in  winter,  and  a  good  crop  for  plowing  under  in  the  spring  for  the  oats. 
The  analysis  of  the  oat  plant  shows  that  nitrogen  plays  an  important  part  in 
its  growth,  more  than  it  does  in  the  wheat  plant  or  other  small  grains.  The 
clover,  then,  will  have  the  further  advantage  of  furnishing  nitrifiable  organic 
matter  for  the  oats.  During  the  brief  period  in  which  the  spring  oat  crop 
holds  the  land  this  organic  matter  will  become  well  advanced  and  ready  to 


Some  Minor  Crops — 187 

feed  the  crop  following.  Then  when  the  oats  are  cut  the  land  is  sown  in  cow 
peas,  and  a  good  application  of  acid  phosphate  and  potash  will  cause  a  fine 
growth  of  the  peas,  which  can  be  mown  for  hay  in  September  or  October  and 
the  land  at  once  well  disced  (but  not  replowed),  for  the  wheat.  Managed 
in  this  way  we  get  two  leguminous  crops  on  the  land  between  the  com  and  the 
wheat,  and  get  a  lot  of  excellent  forage  that  we  would  not  get  if  the  oats  stub- 
ble was  merely  summer  fallowed. 

The  old  plan  of  letting  land  lie  out  in  sod  year  after  year  is  fast  giving 
way  to  the  short  rotation  and  the  keeping  of  the  land  always  at  work,  grow- 
ing something  either  for  feed  or  soil  improvement.  The  old  long  rotation,  so 
common  once  in  Southeastern  Pennsylvania,  necessitated  the  division  of  the 
farm  into  a  multitude  of  little  fields,  and  made  the  keeping  up  of  fences  a 
serious  item  in  the  expenses  of  the  farm,  for  fences  are  needed  wherever  long 
pasturage  is  practiced.  But  with  the  coming  in  of  the  short  rotation  and  a 
standing  permanent  pasture,  the  capacity  of  the  farm  for  the  feeding  of  stock 
is  immensely  increased.  It  has  taken  our  farmers  a  long  time  to  learn  that 
pasturage  belongs  to  sections  of  wider  area  and  cheap  land,  that  where  farms 
are  small  and  land  costly  a  different  method  must  be  practiced,  and  the 
greater  value  of  the  products  will  warrant  a  more  intensive  agriculture.  This 
has  led,  of  late  years,  to  the  giving  of  more  attention  to 

SOILING  CROPS. 

While  the  places  where  an  exclusive  practice  of  soiling  are  limited  to  the 
high  priced  acres  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  larger  cities,  where  dairy- 
ing for  milk  can  be  profitably  carried  on  and  the  product  retailed,  there  is 
still  much  importance  to  the  general  farmer  in  the  production  of  some  soiling 
crops,  and  the  practice,  at  times,  of  feeding  cattle  cut  food  green.  There  are 
always  times  in  nearly  every  summer  when  the  pasture  is  too  short  and  dry  to 
keep  up  the  flow  of  milk,  or  even  to  keep  cows  in  fairly  good  condition.  If 
purchased  food  must  be  used  to  supplement  the  pasture  it  makes  a  costly  ad- 
dition to  the  expense  account.  Therefore  it  is  to  the  interest  of  everyone  who 
keeps  cows  (and  of  course  that  means  all  farmers)  to  provide  from  his  own 
acres  a  balanced  ration  for  his  animals.  The  amount  of  food  that  can  be 
gotten  in  a  green  state  frOm  a  small  area  of  highly  enriched  land  would  be  a 
revelation  to  those  who  have  never  tried  it.  While  soiling  is  adapted  to  every 
part  of  the  country  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  the  longer  season  in  the  South- 
ern States  gives  the  farmer  there  a  wider  range  of  crops  for  this  purpose  and 
a  longer  time  for  green  feeding.  While  we  do  not  believe  in  what  is  com- 
monly termed  "green  manuring,"  or  the  plowing  under  of  immature  crops 


188 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feedinq 

for  manure,  we  are  in  hearty  sj^mpathy  with  the  manuring  through  the  feed- 
ing of  green  crops.  We  know  of  no  way  in  which  the  manurial  resources  of 
the  farm  can  be  so  rapidly  enlarged  as  through  the  growing,  during  the  sum- 
mer, of  a  succession  of  crops  for  cutting  and  feeding.  Not  only  the  milch 
cows,  but  every  animal  that  is  kept  on  the  farm  can  be  greatly  helped  in  sum- 
mer by  green  cut  food.  We  once  saw  a  striking  example  of  this  in  a  village 
of  North  Carolina.  The  leading  merchant  of  the  place,  who  kept  a  number 
of  horses  and  mules  for  hauling,  and  also  cows  for  family  use,  had  an  acre 
lot  adjoining  his  barn,  which  he  assured  me  kept  six  horses  and  mules  sup- 
plied with  food  from  June  till  frost.  The  land  was  sown  in  clover  in  Sep- 
tember, and  that  was  cut  in  the  spring  for  green  feed  and  hay.  Half  the  land 
was  then  manured  and  planted  in  corn,  a  few  rows  at  a  time.  As  fast  as  one 
planting  appeared  a  few  more  rows  were  planted  till  the  whole  half  acre  was 
in  corn.  While  this  was  coming  on  the  second  growth  of  clover  on  the  other 
part  was  being  cut  and  fed.  When  the  first  planted  corn  had  tasseled  and 
silked  it  was  cut  and  fed  and  the  rows  at  once  replanted  with  corn,  and  so  on 
in  succession,  the  last  rows  being  planted  again  in  August.  In  September 
this  part  was  manured  and  sown  to  clover,  and  the  following  spring  after 
the  clover  was  cut,  the  other  half  was  taken  for  corn  and  treated  as  before. 
By  constant  manuring  and  the  plowing  of  a  clover  sod,  this  acre  of  land  made 
a  product  that  was  simply  enormous,  and  furnished  an  amount  of  feed  that 
one  who  had  never  seen  anything  of  the  kind  could  hardly  realize  as  possible. 
We  feel  sure  that  even  in  this  case  the  substitution  of  the  cow  pea  for  the 
Second  growth  of  clover  would  have  given  still  greater  results,  for  the  green 
pea  vines,  in  connection  with  the  green  corn,  would  have  made  a  completely 
balanced  ration,  and  would  have  been  especially  adapted  to  the  needs  of  dairy 
animals.  There  are  still  other  crops  that  can  be  used  in  a  similar  way,  such 
as  sorghum,  which  can  be  cut  continuously,  and  reproduces  from  the  sprouts, 
without  replanting  during  the  whole  season.  There  is  hardly  a  farm  on 
which  something  of  the  sort  could  not  be  practiced  with  a  small  piece  of  land 
near  the  barn  kept  well  supplied  with  manure,  and  the  products  of  which 
would  not  only  furnish  the  manure  it  needs,  but  would  make  a  surplus  for  use 
elsewhere.  In  the  South,  the  cow  pea  alone,  following  a  crop  of  annual 
clover  cut  in  early  spring,  could  be  made  to  keep  up  a  succession  of  food  from 
June  till  frost ;  for  if  not  allowed  to  exhaust  itself  by  blooming  and  seed  mak- 
ing, the  pea  will  give  a  succession  of  cuttings  of  green  feed  during  the  whole 
season.  Even  when  pastured  we  have  had  the  cow  pea  eaten  down  three 
times  in  one  season.  When  pastures  are  parched  and  brown,  the  man  who  has 
had  foresight  to  provide  green  food  for  cutting  will  be  in  a  far  better  situation 
than  the  one  who  has  not  provided  for  this  emergency,  and  he  will  be  raising 


Some  Minok  Crops — 189 

manure  to  help  release  him  from  the  grasp  of  the  fertilizer  mixer;  the  most 
important  matter  of  all  to  the  Southern  farmer.  In  the  first  starting  of  such 
a  lot  it  may  be  necessary,  in  some  places,  from  lack  of  fertility,  to  use  a  liberal 
supply  of  commercial  fertilizer.  In  some  sections  crimson  clover  has  failed 
from  two  causes,  first  lack  of  plant  food  in  the  soil,  and,  secondly,  the  absence 
of  the  nitrifying  microbes  in  the  soil.  It  has  frequently  been  found  that  this 
clover  fails  the  first  season  it  is  sown  and  succeeds  on  the  same  land  the  next 
season,  simply  because  in  the  meantime  the  soil  has  become  infected  with  the 
needed  microbes.  But  while  clover  of  any  kind  does  not,  on  a  fairly  fertile 
soil,  need  any  application  of  nitrogen,  it  nevertheless  is  greatly  helped  on  a 
poor  soil  by  an  application  of  stable  manure.  In  one  section  we  have  visited 
the  farmers  uniformly  failed  to  get  a  good  growth  of  this  clover  on  their 
sandy  soil.  One  fall  a  man  in  the  adjoining  town  who  had  a  livery  stable, 
hauled  out  a  good  quantity  of  manure  on  one  of  his  lots  near  the  town,  and 
sowed  the  land  in  crimson  clover.  The  growth  on  that  land  was  simply  enor- 
mous, and  revealed  to  the  farmers  around  the  reason  for  their  lack  of  success. 
The  same  season  of  this  success  a  farmer  hauled  out  his  manure  from  stall  fed 
cattle  and  spread  it  down  between  his  cotton  rows  after  he  had  completed  the 
cultivation  of  the  crop,  and  then  sowed  crimson  clover  seed  among  the  cotton, 
and  had  a  great  success.  So  where  the  annual  clover  is  to  make  the  starting 
point  for  a  soiling  crop  it  will  not  be  amiss  if  the  manure  is  at  hand  to  help 
it  in  that  way,  and  then  to  further  supplement  the  manure  with  a  good  dress- 
ing of  acid  phosphate  and  potash,  mixed  in  proportion  of  five  parts  of  acid 
phosphate  to  one  part  of  muriate  of  potash.  Two  hundred  pounds  of  this  per 
acre  on  land  that  has  had  a  light  dressing  of  manure  will  insure  a  remarkable 
cutting  of  clover.  Soiling  crops  in  summer,  followed  by  the  silage  in  winter 
will  form  the  key  to  successful  stock  feeding  and  dairying  in  many  sections 
of  the  country.  Some  place  a  gTeat  value  on  green  rye  as  a  soiling  crop,  be- 
cause of  its  earliness.  But  rye  is  poor  food  for  any  animal  and  makes  very 
poor  and  ill-flavored  milk.  The  newly  introduced  hairy  vetch  will  well  take 
the  place  of  rye  in  any  section.  It  will  give  as  early  a  growth,  and  a  food 
material  incalculably  better  than  the  rye,  and  it  can  be  well  used  as  the  start- 
ing point  of  the  season's  soiling  and  be  followed  by  cow  peas  and  corn. 

CROPS  FOR  HOGS  TO  GATHER. 

Near  akin  to  the  soiling  practice  is  the  one  becoming  common  in  some 
sections,  of  planting  certain  small  lots  near  at  hand  with  crops  that  the  pigs 
can  gather  for  themselves.  This,  too,  is  a  practice  for  which  the  long  seasons 
in  the  South  furnish  especial  advantage.     While  rooting  their  food  from  the 


190 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

soil  is  not  conducive  to  rapid  fattening,  it  nevertheless  keeps  the  pigs  in  a 
thrifty  condition  during  the  early  summer  till  there  are  cow  peas  for  them 
to  gather  and  peanuts  to  glean,  and  renders  their  keep  very  cheap  till  the  time 
when  they  are  fattened  for  slaughter,  with  corn.  The  Jerusalem  artichoke 
is  a  favorite  food  with  some,  and  on  land  of  a  sandy  character,  where  the  hogs 
can  get  them  all  out,  they  may  have  some  advantages,  being  very  hardy  and 
furnishing  food  and  exercise  at  a  season  when  there  is  nothing  else.  But  on 
a  heavy  clay  soil,  which  would  be  seriously  damaged  by  their  rooting  at  the 
season  when  the  tubers  are  available,  and  from  which  they  could  hardly 
glean  the  whole,  the  artichoke  may  become  an  intolerable  weed,  as  we  know 
full  well.  But  in  sandy  soils  they  may  well  be  used  till  clover  comes  in,  and 
later  on  the  ripening  cow  peas  will  be  the  place  for  the  pigs.  Sweet  potatoes 
are  sometimes  fed  to  pigs  in  the  South  in  this  way,  but  in  these  days  of  quick 
transportation  this  crop  has  too  great  a  value  as  a  market  crop  to  make  the 
feeding  profitable,  except  in  the  more  remote  neighborhoods.  In  more  north- 
ern sections  we  would  assume  that  the  Canada  field  pea  would  be  a  valuable 
hog  feeding  crop  till  clover  comes  on.  Where  red  clover  flourishes,  a  special 
piece  should  be  provided  for  the  pigs  so  that  they  can  live  "like  pigs  in  clover." 


FORAGE  PLANTS  NOT  LEGUMINOUS. 
MILLETS. 

While  the  millets  belong  rather  to  the  botanical  genus  Panicum,  the 
name  has  been  applied  to  a  number  of  plants  of  different  genera.  While  most 
of  the  millets  cultivated  in  this  country  belong  to  the  Panicum  genus,  others 
belong  to  Setaria,  or,  as  they  now-a-days  want  us  to  call  them,  in  the  rage 
for  changing  botanical  names,  Chaetochloa.  Only  those  who  spend  their 
whole  time  and  energy  in  the  upsetting  of  our  old  botanical  nomenclature 
can  give  any  reason  for  the  change.  The  farmer  can,  however,  continue  to 
know  these  by  the  name  of  the  Foxtail  millets. 

Millets  are  not  a  crop  that  will  be  profitable  to  take  into  a  regular  rota- 
tion, but  there  are  times  when  they  can  be  used  as  a  catch  crop,  to  fill  out  a 
gap  in  the  forage  supply,  though  in  our  opinion  such  conditions  will  be  rare ; 
for  at  the  time  the  millets  should  be  sown  the  cow  pea  can  as  well  be  used 
for  the  catch  crop,  and  the  resulting  forage  will  be  immensely  superior  to  that 
of  any  millet  grown.  Millets  require  the  richest  of  soil  to  make  a  good  crop, 
while  the  pea  will  thrive  on  soil  of  moderate  fertility,  and  help  the  soil  while 
it  makes  forage.  Millet  hay  is  at  best  a  poor  hay.  It  is  also  a  dangerous 
hay  for  horses  if  the  seeds  are  allowed  to  mature  in  the  heads.     If  you  have 


Some  Minok  Crops — 191 

some  low  lying  land  which  is  very  fertile  and  which  cannot  be  worked  early, 
and  is  not  suitable  for  leguminous  crops,  you  may  grow  millet  with  some 
profit.  The  finest  crops  we  ever  saw  were  on  the  dyked  marshes  along  the 
Delaware  liiver  near  Wilmington,  Del.  It  is  only  on  such  lands  that  we 
would  grow  these  non-leguminous  forage  plants.  On  land  that  would  require 
fertilization  to  grow  a  good  crop  of  millet  it  would  be  better  to  let  the  millet 
alone  and  grow  something  better  adapted  to  the  soil  and  capable  of  making 
better  feed.  The  main  fertilizer  requirement  of  the  millets  is  nitrogen, 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  is  the  most  costly  of  the  ingredients  in  a  fertilizer, 
and  which  the  legumes  can  get  for  themselves. 

TEOSINTE. 

This  is  a  plant  closely  allied  to  our  Indian  com,  but  which  requires  a 
longer  season  to  mature  seed  than  it  can  get  in  the  larger  part  of  the  United 
States.  It  is  said  to  mature  seed  in  Southern  Florida,  but  even  for  this  we 
cannot  vouch.  As  a  soiling  crop  teosinte  will  give  a  large  yield  of  green 
stuff,  about  as  valuable  for  feeding  as  immature  corn  stalks,  and  so  far  as  we 
have  observed,  not  so  good  in  feeding  quality  as  the  corn  because  of  its  im- 
maturity. Those  who  look  at  bulk  rather  than  quality  will  usually  be  pleased 
with  teosinte.  It  can  be  cut  several  times  during  the  summer  on  rich  and 
moist  land,  and  like  the  millets,  should  be  grown  on  no  other.  Being  of  the 
same  carbonaceous  character  as  Indian  corn  and  never  reaching  the  mature 
quality  of  corn  we  cannot  see  any  place  in  our  agriculture  for  the  plant;  for 
on  the  same  land  Indian  corn  will  give  fully  as  much,  if  not  more  of  real  dry 
matter.  It  would  be  hard  to  find  a  plant  of  any  kind  that  can  approach  our 
Indian  corn  for  our  purposes  as  a  forage  plant,  to  supply  the  carbonaceous 
elements  of  the  ration.  Corn  is  the  king  of  this  class  of  plants  for  the  Ameri- 
can climate,  and  can  never  be  surpassed  here  in  its  special  field.  Other  for- 
age plants  to  have  special  value  must  be  protein  plants,  like  the  legumes,  and 
be  supplementary  to  the  corn  plant.  Any  plant  that  simply  takes  the  place  of 
corn  is  certain  to  fail  in  the  United  States,  at  least  east  of  the  Mississippi. 

KAFFIR  CORN. 

This  is  one  of  the  non-saccharine  sorghums,  which  has  attained  consider- 
able importance  west  of  the  Missouri  as  a  forage  and  grain  producing  plant. 
It  withstands  drought  better  than  Indian  corn,  as  all  the  sorghum  family 
do,  and  gives  quite  a  large  crop  of  grain,  which  has  value.  It  has  attracted 
more  attention  in  Kansas  than  anywhere  else.     As  we  have  seen  it  grown 


192 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

here  it  does  not  anywhere  near  compare  in  growth  and  weight  of  crop  with 
Indian  corn  or  saccharine  sorghum  on  the  same  land.  It  is  probable  that 
it  is  better  adapted  to  the  fertile  soils  and  droughty  climate  of  Kansas  than 
to  the  east.  Here  we  can  grow  far  more  and  better  feed  from  Indian  corn 
on  the  same  land. 

SORGHUM. 

Considerable  attention  has  been  given  of  late  to  the  saccharine  varieties 
of  sorghum  as  forage  plants.  Treated  solely  as  a  forage  plant  and  sown 
thickly,  broadcast,  there  is  no  doubt  that  sorghum  will  make  a  very  passable 
hay,  but  a  hay  very  hard  to  cure.  Some  farmers  of  our  acquaintance  tried 
sowing  sorghum  along  with  their  cow  peas,  with  the  notion  that  it  would 
make  the  peas  easier  to  cure.  It  had  the  opposite  effect,  for  peas  are  easily 
cured  without  sorghum  but  very  hard  to  cure  with  it.  Sorghum  is  mainly 
valuable  as  a  soiling  crop,  to  tide  cattle  over  a  summer  drought.  As  a  forage 
crop  it  is  of  the  same  class  and  less  valuable  than  Indian  corn,  the  king  of 
American  fodder  plants.  While  sorghum  and  Kaffir  corn  will  stand  drought 
very  well,  they  both  succeed  best  and  make  their  best  crops  on  low,  moist  land, 
with  plenty  of  fertility.  Both  are  exhaustive  crops  and  neither  of  them  yield 
a  hay  that  can  compare  in  value  with  that  from  the  legumes,  which  are  bene- 
ficial to  the  soil.  In  the  present  state  of  our  agriculture,  especially  in  the 
older  States,  we  cannot  see  the  advisability  of  growing  these  non-leguminous 
forage  plants  when  we  can  do  so  much  better  with  the  legumes,  both  in  the 
quality  of  the  forage  and  the  value  of  the  plants  to  the  soil.  In  certain  sec- 
tions of  the  South,  like  some  parts  of  Texas,  where  the  soil  has  exuberant 
fertility  and  the  climate  is  droughty,  the  Kaffir  corn  and  sorghum  may  have 
a  special  value ;  but  in  our  thin  uplands  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  we  con- 
sider it  unwise  for  the  farmer  to  waste  fertility  in  growing  forage  inferior  to 
that  which  he  can  produce  while  helping  in  the  improvement  of  his  soil.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  the  grasses  in  a  large  part  of  the  South.  There  are  rich, 
low  lands  where  grasses  can  be  profitably  grown,  but  though  we  may  seem 
heterodox,  we  are  fully  convinced  that  the  South,  so  far  as  the  uplands  are 
concerned,  does  not  need  the  grasses  as  she  does  legumes;  and  until  these 
uplands  are  built  up  in  fertility  it  is  a  mistake  to  waste  time  in  the  effort  to 
grow  the  grasses  for  meadow  purposes.  With  a  standing  pasture  of  Bermuda 
and  a  good  rotation  with  the  legumes  on  our  uplands,  we  can  develop  the  pro- 
ductive capacity  of  our  soils  faster  and  maintain  their  fertility  better  without 
grass  than  with  it. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 
COMMERCIAL  FERTILIZERS  AND  THE  MARKET  GARDEN. 

Forty  years  or  more  ago,  it  was  assumed  that  the  cultivation  of  market 
garden  crops  must  be  confined  to  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  cities  requiring 
the  supply,  because  it  was  thought  that  abundant  supplies  of  stable  manure 
were  a  first  essential  to  the  successful  culture  of  garden  crops.  At  that  time, 
too,  the  rapid  transportation  from  distant  points  was  not  established,  hence 
all  of  our  cities  were  dependent  on  the  gardens  of  the  immediate  vicinity  for 
their  supply  of  vegetables,  and  from  them  supplies  were  sent  to  the  smaller 
towns  in  their  vicinity.  But  with  the  introduction  of  Peruvian  guano, 
growers  on  the  warm  and  sandy  soils  of  New  Jersey,  outside  of  what  had  been 
the  market  garden  region  proper,  began  to  produce  certain  easily  grown  and 
easily  transported  crops;  but  the  market  gardeners  proper,  with  their  few 
acres  of  high  priced  land,  assumed  that  while  peas  and  such  things  might 
be  thus  grown  on  cheap  lands,  they  still  would  have  the  monopoly  of  the 
bulky  cabbages,  beets  and  other  things  for  which  they  considered  a  supply 
of  stable  manure  essential.  For  many  years  these  market  gardeners  re- 
fused to  take  advantage  of  the  commercial  fertilizers,  and  adhered  to  their 
old  time  heavy  applications  of  stable  manure,  believing  that  no  real  success 
could  be  had  with  the  majority  of  vegetables  without  it.  Even  when  the 
culture  of  early  vegetables  had  extended  to  Norfolk,  in  the  South,  and  was 
assuming  an  important  position  in  the  trade,  such  was  the  force  of  old  habits 
that  the  first  of  the  Norfolk  gardeners  spent  large  amounts  in  the  freighting 
of  stable  manure,  not  only  from  their  own  city  but  from  the  North. 

But  gradually  the  fact  became  evident  that  in  the  easily  transported 
commercial  fertilizers  was  the  true  source  of  profit  for  those  at  a  distance 
from  their  market,  and  that  the  easy  solubility  of  the  complete  fertilizer 
mixture  was  a  great  advantage  in  the  forcing  of  early  crops.  They  also 
realized  the  fact  that  after  their  early  crops  were  off,  they  could  cover  their 
land  with  the  cow  pea,  and  thus  furnish  it  with  all  the  organic  matter  that 

(198) 


194 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

made  stable  manure  valuable.  With  all  the  extension  of  rapid  communica- 
tion between  the  far  South  and  the  Northern  cities,  the  great  trade  in  early 
vegetables  and  small  fruits  could  never  have  grown  up  but  for  the  commer- 
cial fertilizers. 

Farmers  who  have  been  accustomed  to  the  scattering  of  a  hundred  or 
two  pounds  per  acre  of  commercial  fertilizers,  find  it  hard  to  realize  the 
lavishness  with  which  the  wide-awake  market  gardener  uses  these  forms  of 
plant  food.  Now,  even  the  market  gardeneris  near  the  large  cities  have  found 
cut  that  they,  too,  can  more  cheaply  fertilize  their  acres  with  the  chemical 
manures  and  legumes,  than  by  the  hauling  of  so  much  stable  manure,  and  a 
very  considerable  part  of  the  commercial  fertilizers  used  nowadays  is  used  by 
gardeners,  who  do  not  hesitate  to  use  them  by  the  thousand  pounds  per  acre 
instead  of  the  hundred  of  the  farmer. 

While  the  wise  gardener  will  always  stock  his  land  with  organic  matter 
by  the  use  of  legumes,  and  will  feed  the  same  and  make  use  of  the  manure 
thus  made,  he  knows  that  he  cannot,  like  the  general  farmer,  depend  on  these 
alone  as  a  source  of  nitrogen  for  his  crops.  There  must  be  no  lack  of  imme- 
diately available  plant  food  to  urge  on  the  early  and  rapid  growth  of  his 
crops,  for  upon  their  earliness  and  succulency  depend  the  price  he  will  get 
for  them,  and  he  cannot  afford  to  take  the  slower  means  that  may  be  all 
sufficient  for  the  grower  of  wheat,  corn  or  cotton.  His  crop  has  a  higher 
value  per  acre,  and  he  can  afford  to  use  the  fertilizers  in  a  manner  that  would 
be  a  lavish  waste  to  the  grain  farmer.  The  great  extension  southward  of  the 
culture  of  garden  crops  for  a  time  caused  the  growers  near  the  large  cities 
much  uneasiness.  When  they  saw  their  markets  filled  with  Southern  crops 
at  a  season  when  they  were  but  just  planting,  they  came-  to  the  conclusion 
that  their  occupation  was  gone.  But  time  has  proved  that  each  section  has 
now  its  own  season  in  the  markets,  and  that  when  the  nearby  gardeners 
bring  in  their  fresh  supplies  the  distant  man  must  draw  out;  so  that  now, 
from  the  islands  of  the  West  Indies  and  Florida  all  the  way  to  Canada,  the 
great  cities  draw  supplies  continuously  without  break,  and  the  seasons  for 
certain  vegetables  and  fruits  run  thraughout  the  year.  This  great  and  con- 
tinuous supply  has  been  brought  about,  not  only  by  rapid  transportation,  but 
more  largely  through  the  general  use  of  commercial  fertilizers. 

COMPLETE    FERTILIZERS    ESSENTIAL   TO    THE    PRODUCTION    OF    GARDEN    CROPS. 

While,  as  we  have  shown,  the  grain  farmer  can,  through  the  use  of  leg- 
umes, avoid  the  purchase  of  an  ounce  of  nitrogen,  the  market  gardener  must 
use  fertilizers  rich  in  all  the  elements  of  plant  food.     This  is  especially  true 


Commercial  Fertilizers  and  the  Market  Garden— 195 

of  such  crops  as  cabbages,  cauliflower  and  other  things  of  which  the  foliage 
above  ground  forms  the  important  part,  for  we  have  seen  that  an  abundant 
and  readily  available  supply  of  nitrogen  is  essential  to  great  leaf  develop- 
ment. Then,  too,  with  many  of  the  crops  of  the  market  garden,  potash  is  a 
very  important  element,  and  some  liberal  addition  of  this  must  be  made, 
even  in  soils,  which  for  the  ordinary  purposes  of  the  farmer,  are  sufficiently 
supplied  with  this  form  of  plant  food.  The  size  and  starchiness  of  the 
potato  depends  rather  on  the  presence  of  an  abundant  supply  of  potash  than 
on  the  amount  of  nitrogen  present,  while  many  of  the  foliage  crops,  like 
lettuce,  require  liberal  supplies  of  the  same. 

On  the  other  hand  the  cabbage  crop,  while  needing  a  plentiful  supply 
of  nitrogen,  is  especially  benefited  by  a  large  application  of  phosphoric  acid 
rather  than  of  potash  especially. 

home  mixing  essential  to  the  market  gardener. 

Owing  to  the  varied  manurial  requirements  of  his  crops,  and  the  abun- 
dant supply  which  he  must  have,  the  home  mixing  of  fertilizers  is  of  far 
more  importance  to  the  market  gardener  than  to  the  general  farmer,  though 
valuable  to  both.  To  insure  success  in  the  growing  of  vegetables,  gardeners 
must  understand  the  requirements  of  their  crops  as  to  the  proportions  of 
the  various  plant  foods  they  need,  and  this  proportioning  can  best  be  done 
by  the  gardener  himself  from  the  purchase  of  the  various  materials  best 
adapted  to  his  purposes.  All  the  large  truck  farmers  of  the  South  Atlantic 
coast  mix  their  own  fertilizers,  many  of  them  using  such  large  quantities 
that  they  have  erected  houses  and  machinery  for  the  purpose.  In  the  follow- 
ing chapters  I  will  give  my  experience  in  the  treatment  of  the  crops  usually 
grown  by  market  gardeners,  and  their  fertilizer  requirements,  North  and 
South,  since  in  this  respect  there  will  be  some  variation  with  latitude  and 
climate. 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

ASPARAGUS. 

There  is  no  crop  commonly  grown  by  market  gardeners  which  has  been 
more  uniformly  profitable  than  the  asparagus  crop.  This  is  largely  due  to  the 
fact  that  a  considerable  expenditure  must  be  made  and  some  time  elapse 
before  a  profitable  crop  can  be  had;  hence  the  temporary  men,  who  rush 
in  from  time  to  time  with  their  inferior  crops  of  the  annual  vegetables, 
and  out  again  when  they  find  such  unprofitable,  seldom  attempt  the  asparagus 
crop.  The  market  value  of  the  crop  depends  so  much  on  the  thoroughness 
of  the  preparation  of  the  soil,  its  suitability  to  the  crop,  and  the  skillful 
treatment  and  handling  of  it,  that  unskilled  men  are  soon  driven  out; 
while  the  producers  of  a  really  fine  article  always  find  it  a  profitable  crop, 
North  and  South.  Its  value,  when  grown  especially  early,  is  such  that 
heavy  transportation  rates  can  easily  be  paid;  while  the  price  when  those 
rates  become  prohibitive,  is  still  sufficient  to  make  its  culture  a  profitable 
one  near  the  points  of  consumption  in  the  North. 

GROWING    THE    PLANTS. 

Asparagus  plants  are  one  of  the  supplies  that  every  market  gardener 
should  produce  for  himself.  Of  course,  they  are  offered  at  low  prices  all 
over  the  country,  but  really  good  plants  are  hard  to  get.  Then,  too,  unless 
the  packing  is  unusually  well  done,  there  is  no  plant  more  easily  damaged  by 
long  shipment  than  asparagus  roots.  Cold  and  dryness  will  not  hurt  them, 
but  too  great  a  bulk  and  too  much  moisture  will  cause  them  to  heat  in  the 
package  and  become  worthless.  Many  years  ago  I  bought  from  a  nursery- 
man 30,000  roots  of  Conover's  Colossal  asparagus  at  the  time  when  they 
were  selling  at  $10  per  thousand.  They  were  transported  but  50  miles,  and 
were  packed  in  one  large  crockery  hogshead  and  one  tierce,  and  had  evidently 
been  forced  down  with  a  screw  press.     They  arrived  during  my  absence,  and 

(196) 


Asparagus — 1 9  7 

my  foreman  received  and  planted  them.  On  my  return  he  told  me  that  the 
roots  were  hot  when  unpacked  and  many  of  them  moldy.  Had  I  been  at 
home  they  would  not  have  been  received.  Out  of  the  whole  30,000  not  fifty 
plants  grew,  and  I  have  never  bought  asparagus  roots  since.  Some  advise 
the  planting  of  two-year-old  roots  as  an  advantage  of  a  yearns  growth,  but  I 
have  never  found  that  there  was  any  advantage  in  these  unless  they  had  been 
singled  out  and  transplanted  at  one  year's  growth.  Most  asparagus  plants 
offered  for  sale  have  been  grown  entirely  too  much  crowded,  the  object  being 
to  get  as  many  plants  as  possible  per  acre.  The  grower  who  produces  his  own 
plants  can  avoid  this.  One  of  the  most  important  points  in  the  production 
of  good  asparagus  plants  is  to  grow  them  in  the  richest  and  best  prepared  soil. 
Plants  grown  thinly  in  such  soil,  are  far  better  at  one  year  than  the  majority 
of  the  plants  sold  are  at  two  years.  The  books  will  tell  you  that  it  takes 
three  years  to  produce  salable  asparagus,  and  under  ordinary  conditions  it 
does.  On  one  occasion  I  prepared  and  heavily  fertilized  a  piece  of  land  al- 
ready very  fertile,  for  the  production  of  plants  for  setting  the  following  fall. 
They  made  a  magnificent  growth,  and  the  season  was  very  favorable.  After 
planting  what  we  needed  there  were  about  50,000  plants  left,  and  I  proposed 
to  sell  these,  and  did  sell  a  large  number.  To  my  surprise,  when  the  plants 
began  to  shoot,  the  following  spring,  I  found  that  in  these  nursery  rows  I  had 
large  and  marketable  asparagus,  and  did  market  quite  a  quantity  but  one 
season  from  the  seed,  and  the  transplanted  roots  gave  me  a  very  fair  crop  a 
year  after  setting.  The  abundance  of  plant  food  in  the  soil  counts  for  more 
than  age  with  the  asparagus  plant,  and  abundant  feeding  more  than  any 
special  variety.  There  is  one  advantage  to  the  grower  in  keeping  his  plants 
in  the  nursery  rows  till  two  years  old ;  this  is  that  he  can  then  find  and  reject 
all  the  pistillate,  or  seed  bearing  plants,  and  it  is  a  great  advantage  to  have 
none  of  these  in  the  plantation,  since  seed  production  is  an  exhaustive  process 
to  the*  plant  and  the  crop  will  be  larger  if  the  female  plants  are  taken  out. 
This  is  another  reason  for  the  grower  producing  his  own  plants. 

For  the  production  of  the  plants  I  prepare  a  rich  and  rather  moist  piece 
of  land,  but  by  no  means  an  undrained  soil.  If  stable  manure  is  abundant 
fill  the  land  with  well  rotted  manure,  and  add  to  it  a  good  percentage  of 
kainit  or  muriate  of  potash,  for  the  development  of  strong  roots  depends  on 
a  full  supply  of  potash  in  the  soil  in  a  soluble  form.  Sow  the  seed  in  shallow 
furrows  and  cover  about  two  inches.  Keep  them  as  clean  as  an  onion  bed 
during  the  whole  summer.  The  plants  should  stand  about  three  inches  apart 
to  make  fair  roots,  and  if  they  come  up  too  thickly,  thin  them  when  the  size 
of  a  large  darning  needle  and  transplant  them  at  good  distances.  These  little 
plants  transplant  easily,  and  often  make  the  finest  of  roots.     In  the  South, 


198 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

the  young  roots  can  be  transplanted  .as  soon  as  the  tops  have  ripened,  but  there 
is  no  particular  advantage  in  fall  planting  except  that  we  are  apt  to  be  less 
pressed  by  work  at  that  time.  The  best  time  for  making  the  permanent  plan- 
tation. North  or  South,  is  as  early  in  the  spring  as  the  land  can  be  worked. 

PREPARING  FOR  THE  PERMANENT   PLANTATION. 

While  the  early  spring  is  the  best  planting  time,  the  preparation  of  the 
soil  should  be  done  beforehand.  The  best  soil  for  the  asparagus  crop  is  a 
mellow,  sandy  loam.  A.  deep,  sandy  soil  will  grow  good  asparagus,  but  will 
require  more  constant  and  heavier  manuring  on  account  of  its  leachy  charac- 
ter; hence,  while  a  sandy  soil  is  earlier  and  better  than  a  clay  soil,  it  should 
be  underlaid  by  a  rather  retentive  subsoil  for  the  best  results,  but  it  is  im- 
portant that  it  be  thoroughly  and  naturally  well  drained.  Land  that  has 
been  heavily  manured  annually,  and  cultivated  in  garden  crops,  is  in  better 
condition  for  asparagus  than  a  fresh  soil,  and  it  will  be  an  advantage  that  it 
has  grown  a  crop  of  peas  or  clover  the  year  before.  These  should  be  plowed 
under  in  the  fall,  and  the  subsoil  plow  run  in  every  furrow,  so  that  the  land 
is  completely  broken  15  to  18  inches  deep.  If  stable  manure  is"  plentiful 
it  can  be  used  liberally  in  this  preparation.  Then  sow  on  the  land  a  winter 
cover  crop  of  rye  to  prevent  the  leaching  of  the  nitrogen,  and  plow  this  under 
before  planting  in  the  spring. 

In  planting  run  out  furrows  five  feet  apart,  clean  out  as  well  as  possible 
with  the  plow  and  then  with  the  shovel  until  you  have  trenches  ten  inches 
deep,  set  the  plants  two  feet  apart  in  the  rows  and  cover  not  more  than  two 
inches  at  first,  tramping  the  earth  to  the  roots.  As  the  shoots  begin  to  appear 
work  the  soil  to  them,  always  keeping  the  young,  spindling  shoot  above  the 
soil,  till  perfectly  level.  At  each  working  in  of  the  soil,  also  once  before  the 
cultivation  begins  and  as  soon  as  the  planting  is  complete,  apply  500  pounds 
per  acre  of  the  following  mixture,  until  a  ton  per  acre  has  been  applied  and 
the  land  is  level:  Acid  phosphate,  900  pounds;  pulverized  fish  scrap,  600 
pounds;  nitrate  of  soda,  100  pounds;  muriate  of  potash,  400  pounds.  Keep 
the  plantation  perfectly  clean  of  grass  and  weeds  during  the  entire  season, 
and  finally  plow  the  soil  in  a  ridge  over  the  rows  in  the  late  fall,  after  the  dead 
tops  have  been  removed.  The  above  mixture  should  be  an  annual  application 
as  growth  begins  in  the  early  spring.  With  well  grown  plants,  set  in  this 
way,  some  cutting  may  be  made  the  second  season,  but  should  not  be  kept  up 
late;  the  rows  should  be  kept  well  hilled  up  in  the  fall,  and  the  cutting  made 
in  the  earth  as  soon  as  the  shoots  crack  the  surface.  In  some  markets  there 
is  now  a  tendency  to  wish  green  asparagus ;  to  produce  this  the  roots  should 


Asparagus — 199 

be  planted  nearer  the  surface,  and  the  cutting  made  when  the  shoot  is  long 
enough  above  the  ground.  For  our  own  use  we  always  grow  the  green  aspara- 
gus, as  we  do  not  care  for  the  tough,  white  article.  To  grow  this  we  trans- 
plant the  young  plants  as  advised  in  the  thinning,  and  place  them  at  once 
in  their  permanent  quarters.  Being  nearer  the  surface,  this  asparagus  starts 
earlier  in  the  spring,  and  to  our  taste  is  far  superior  to  that  grown  under 
ground.  But  the  market  gardener  must  cater  to  the  requirements  of  his 
market,  and  so  long  as  people  want  white  shoots  he  must  grow  them. 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

BEANS  IN  THE  MARKET  GARDEN, 

Beans  to  the  Southern  trucker  always  means  "snaps,"  or  string  beans; 
since  these  are  about  the  only  beans  that  it  pays  him  to  grow  for  Northern 
shipment.  Snaps  are  one  of  the  crops  the  profit  in  which  depends  on  their 
earliness,  and  though  a  legume,  it  will  always  pay  the  market  gardener  to  use 
some  nitrogen  in  his  fertilizer  for  the  crop,  since  they  are  quickly  grown  and 
are  off  before  the  best  of  the  nitrogen  gathering  begins.  To  the  Southern 
market  gardener  the  crop  of  snaps  means  a  crop  of  hay,  for  as  soon  as  the 
beans  are  shipped  he  turns  the  plants  under,  harrows  the  land  smoothly  and 
simply  waits  for  his  hay  crop  to  grow.  This  is  the  ubiquitous  crab  grass, 
which  at  once  covers  every  vacant  spot  in  the  Southern  market  garden  in 
summer,  and  makes  an  excellent  hay  crop  to  follow  some  early  crop.  Hence 
it  is  better  to  give  the  bean  land  a  fairly  liberal  dressing,  as  the  hay  crop  will 
be  all  the  better  for  what  the  beans  do  not  use.  It  will  be  all  the  better  not 
to  use  the  common  Southern  method  of  putting  the  fertilizers  in  the  furrow 
alone,  but  to  sow  it  broadcast.  For  the  bean  crop,  to  be  followed  by  crab 
grass  hay,  we  would  use  500  pounds  per  acre  of  the  following  mixture.  The 
same  mixture  is  equally  good  in  the  North,  and  the  celery  can  follow  the  beans 
with  additional  fertilization:  Acid  phosphate,  1,400  pounds;  cotton  seed 
meal,  400  pounds;  muriate  of  potash,  200  pounds,  to  make  ton  of  2,000 
pounds. 

LIMA  BEANS. 

These  are  a  more  important  crop  in  the  North  than  the  South.  The 
Large  White  lima  bean  so  popular  in  the  North,  is  a  very  poor  cropper  in  the 
South,  and  hence  the  butter  bean  (or  Seewee,  the  small  lima)  is  generally 
used,  and  the  early  ripening  form  of  this,  the  Henderson  Bush  lima  is  most 
generally  used  of  late  years.     Lima  beans  differ  from  most  other  legumes  in 

(200) 


Beans  in  the  Market  Garden — 201 

the  fact  that  they  are  greatly  benefited  by  liberal  applications  of  nitrogenous 
fertilizers,  and  if  well  manured  they  can  be  kept  on  the  same  land  profitably 
year  after  year. 

For  the  production  of  the  bush  lima  beans  we  have  found  that  a  liberal 
application  of  a  complete  fertilizer  mixture  is  best,  and  the  same  mixture  will 
be  found  equally  well  adapted  to  the  large  lima  where  it  is  grown.  The  great 
advantage  to  the  market  gardener  in  the  little  bush  lima  is  its  earliness,  which 
enables  gardeners  in  the  far  North  to  get  lima  beans  where  the  large  lima 
may  be  too  late.  It  is  very  common  to  read  that  the  large  lima  is  of  superior 
quality  to  the  Sewee.  Possibly  it  may  be  in  the  North,  but  here  we  greatly 
prefer  the  small  lima,  and  we  have  had  them  cooked  side  by  side.  In  the 
South  the  small  lima  is  certainly  the  better  bean,  as  well  as  far  more  pro- 
ductive. Of  the  larger  class,  the  Potato  lima,  now  known  as  Dreer's  lima, 
is  far  more  productive  in  the  South  than  the  Large  White  lima,  but  not  as 
good  quality  as  the  Sewee.  Five  hundred  pounds  per  acre  of  the  following 
mixture  will  be  sufficient  for  the  lima  beans  on  a  fairly  fertile  loam:  Acid 
phosphate,  1,000  pounds;  cotton  seed  meal,  700  pounds;  nitrate  of  soda,  100 
pounds;  muriate  of  potash,  200  pounds,  to  make  a  ton  of  2,000  pounds. 

FORCING  SNAP  BEANS. 

The  snap  beans  make  a  useful  plant  for  growing  on  the  side  benches  of 
the  tomato  house,  and  repeated  crops  can  be  produced  during  the  winter.  For 
this  purpose  we  always  plant  the  beans  in  six  inch  pots  and  fruit  them  in  the 
same  pots.  We  use  our  ordinary  potting  compost  made  rather  light  with  sand. 
Two  plants  are  allowed  to  stand  in  each  pot,  and  the  first  planting  is  done 
about  the  time  the  tomato  plants  are  taken  in  from  outside.  For  this  forcing 
crop  we  do  not  use  the  varieties  commonly  grown  by  market  gardeners  in  the 
open  ground,  but  varieties  which  have  been  used  for  forcing  for  generations. 
The  earliest  forcing  bean  is  the  one  with  pea  green  seeds,  known  as  the  Pride 
of  the  Frames,  an  English  variety  used  there  for  frame  culture  in  spring,  and 
which  could  be  grown  here  in  the  same  way  in  early  spring,  whenever  there  is 
a  vacancy  in  the  frames,  before  it  is  safe  to  put  the  seeds  in  the  open  ground. 
This  variety  is  an  exceedingly  dwarf  and  early  sort.  Planted  at  the  same 
time  with  the  old  Yellow  Six  Weeks  bean,  we  had  in  the  same  house  beans 
fit  to  gather  from  this  sort  when  the  Yellow  Six  Weeks  was  fairly  in  bloom. 
Forced  beans  are  tied  in  bunches,  like  asparagus,  and  sold  by  the  bunch.  They 
need  only  careful  attention  to  the  heat  of  the  house,  which  should  never  go 
below  60  degrees  at  night,  and  a  moderate  supply  of  water.  As  fast  as  the 
crop  is  gathered  refill  the  pots  with  fresh  soil  and  replant,  so  as  to  keep  up  a 


202 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

constant  succession  during  the  season.  Bailey,  in  the  Forcing  Book,  recom- 
mends an  English  variety  of  bean  called  Sion  House,  but  we  have  never  tried 
this  sort,  and  cannot  say  from  experience  in  what  way  it  may  excel  the  variety 
above  given.  The  bunches  of  beans  to  which  we  have  referred  should  each 
contain  fifty  pods,  as  that  is  the  regulation  size.  A  crop  of  beans  can  well 
be  taken  from  the  benches  of  the  cucumber  house  while  the  vines  are  grow- 
ing and  thus  get  something  from  space  not  in  use.  The  proper  temperature 
.for  the  beans  is  about  the  same  as  for  tomatoes,  60  to  65  degrees  at  night,  and 
15  or  more  degrees  higher  in  sunlight.  One  good  picking  is  about  all  that 
can  profitably  be  expected  from  forced  beans.  They  like  a  good  bottom  heat, 
hence  the  side  benches  over  the  heating  pipes  and  near  the  glass  is  the  place 
for  them. 


CHAPTER  XXVL 
CABBAGES. 

North  and  South,  early  and  late,  there  is  no  crop  of  greater  importance 
to  the  market  gardener  than  the  cabbage  crop.  From  their  bulky  nature  it 
was  for  years  assumed  that  the  cabbage  crop  was  the  one  which  the  local 
gardeners  would  always  have  control  of.  But  rapid  and  cheap  transportation 
long  ago  settled  this,  and  today  the  early  cabbage  crop  is  the  leading  crop  of 
the  gardeners  of  the  South  in  the  spring,  as  the  late  crop  is  in  the  North 
and  in  the  mountain  country,  of  the  South.  The  method  of  producing  the 
early  cabbage  crop  in  the  South  is  different  from  that  pursued  in  the  North. 
All  the  way  from  Baltimore  southward,  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  the  plants  for 
the  early  cabbage  crop  are  set  in  November,  on  the  south  side  of  sharp  ridges, 
formed  by  the  plow,  three  feet  apart.  In  the  North,,  the  plants  are  produced 
from  seed  sown  about  the  same  time  as  in  the  South,  but  when  the  Southern 
gardener  is  setting  his  plants  in  the  field,  the  Northern  gardener  is  setting  his 
in  cold  frames  to  be  protected  by  a  sash  during  the  winter,  setting  them  so 
thickly  that  an  ordinary  3x6  foot  hotbed  sash  will  cover  1,000  plants.  The 
disaster  that  sometimes  comes  to  the  Southern  gardener  in  the  spring  indi- 
cates that  it  would  be  wise  for  him  to  carry  some  over  in  this  way,  to  cure 
losses  that  sometimes  occur  in  the  field. 

There  is  no  crop,  if  we  except  cauliflower,  that  requires  richer  soil  or 
heavier  fertilization  than  the  early  cabbage  crop.  The  preparation  should,  as 
with  many  other  crops,  begin  the  summer  before  setting.  After  some  early 
crop  is  off  sow  the  land  in  cow  peas.  Cut  these  for  hay,  and  at  once  prepare 
the  land  by  applying,  after  plowing,  a  ton  per  acre  of  the  following  mixture: 
Acid  phosphate,  900  pounds;  fish  scrap  or  tankage,  800  pounds;  nitrate  of 
soda,  100  pounds,  and  muriate  of  potash,  200  pounds.  Mix  all  these  but  the 
nitrate  of  soda  for  fall  application,  and  reserve  that  to  be  applied  in  the  early 
spring,  as  active  growth  begins.  In  the  North,  where  the  plants  are  wintered 
over  in  frames,  the  whole  ton  can  be  applied  at  once,  and  in  that  case  a  winter 
cover  of  rye  should  be  sown  after  the  peas  or  other  legume  have  been  mown 

(208) 


204 — Crop  G-rowing  and  Crop  Feeding 

for  hay,  to  be  plowed  under  in  the  early  spring.  One  thing  which  our  gar- 
deners have  now  learned  from  experience  is  that  success  with  the  cabbage 
crop  depends  on  the  pedigree  of  the  seed  sown,  and  on  its  being  grown  in  the 
American  climate.  Seed  produced  in  the  moist  climate  of  England  will  not 
head  with  any  certainty  in  our  sunny  climate.  There  has  been  a  great  deal 
of  talk  of  late  years  in  regard  to  a  Government  seed  control  and  the  testing  of 
all  seeds  sold.  The  only  test  of  any  value,  however,  is  the  test  that  all  of  our 
great  seed  houses  now  practice;  testing  them  in  the  open  ground  under  the 
same  conditions  with  which  the  purchaser  has  to  contend.  A  laboratory  test 
of  seeds  tells  only  the  percentage  of  them  which  will  germinate,  and  gives  no 
information  in  regard  to  the  seed  stock  from  which  they  came.  In  fact,  it 
cannot  even  tell  what  variety  they  belong  to.  All  gardeners  know  that  the 
more  we  improve  the  character  of  our  plants  and  develop  their  valuable  quali- 
ties as  table  vegetables,  and  remove  them  from  their  natural  wild  condition, 
the  lower  will  be  germinating  power.  The  wild  plant,  which  is  the  survival 
of  the  strongest  in  the  contest  with  other  plants,  has  thrown  all  its  strength 
into  the  production  of  strong  seed  for  the  perpetuation  of  its  species,  while 
the  improved  plant  is  not  selected  for  its  seed  making  power  altogether,  but 
for  the  production  of  characters  valuable  to  mankind,  and  hence  loses  a  great 
deal  of  the  seed  making  vigor  of  the  wild  plant.  So  well  is  this  fact  known 
to  skilled  gardeners  the  man  who  understands  the  value  of  pedigree  in  a  seed 
will  prefer  seeds  of  known  origin  with  a  low  germinative  power  to  those  which 
are  shown  to  have  a  far  higher  germination  percentage  but  are  of  uncertain 
descent.  This  is  particularly  the  case  with  our  seed  of  early  cabbages.  While 
the  imported  seed  may  show  in  the  laboratory  a  higher  percentage  of  germi- 
nation, the  wise  gardener  will  take  the  American  grown  seed  even  if  it  shows 
but  half  the  germination.  Good  germinative  power  is,  of  course,  important  to 
the  grower,  but  good  stock  is  the  thing  that  gives  the  most  valuable  crop. 

The  variety  of  cabbage  used  for  the  earliest  crop  in  this  country  by  our 
market  gardeners  N^orth  and  South  is  the  Early  Wakefield,  sometimes  called 
the  Early  Jersey  Wakefield  from  the  fact  that  in  New  Jersey  the  American 
strain  was  first  developed  from  the  English  Wakefield  cabbage.  The  enter- 
prise of  our  seedsmen  has  caused  several  strains  to  be  developed  from  the 
original  Jersey  Wakefield,  which  for  a  long  time  was  not  a  well  fixed  type, 
and  now  nearly  every  one  of  the  leading  seed  houses  has  its  particular  strain 
of  Wakefield  cabbage,  any  of  which  are  great  improvements  on  the  original. 
In  the  South,  a  particular  strain  is  know  as  the  Charleston  Wakefield.  It  is 
similar  to  the  regular  Early  Wakefield,  but  is  larger  in  size  of  head  and  a  little 
later  than  the  type  form.  In  the  early  days  of  the  Early  Jersey  Wakefield 
cabbage  the  conical  form  of  head,  which  is  regarded  as  the  type,  was  very 


Cabbages — 205 

where  the  production  of  late  cabbages  is  a  troublesome  and  uncertain  matter. 
Winter  cabbages,  coming  in  on  land  that  has  been  heavily  manured  for  some 
early  crop,  will  not  need  as  heavy  manuring  as  the  early  crop ;  still,  it  is  im- 
portant that  there  should  be  no  lack  of  plant  food.  We  have  found  that 
half  the  quantity  advised  for  the  early  crop  will  answer  the  needs  of  the  fall 
crop,  provided  they  are  urged  along  by  two  or  three  dressings  of  nitrate  of 
soda  at  the  rate  of  50  pounds  per  acre  at  each  dressing.  In  the  North,  the 
seed  for  the  late  crop  should  be  sown  in  March  or  April,  in  a  fairly  fertile 
soil,  and  the  plants  grown  to  a  good  size  before  setting  in  June  and  July. 
There  is,  in  some  parts  of  the  country,  an  old  notion  among  farmers  that  the 
cabbages  should  not  be  worked  during  the  dog  days,  and  the  consequence  is 
that  we  often  see  a  lot  of  weedy,  and  starved  cabbages  that  get  so  stunted  that 
they  head  prematurely  and  never  make  fine  cabbages.  Clean,  rapid  culture  is 
as  essential  to  good  cabbages  as  to  any  other  crop,  and  the  man  who  watches 
the  moon  or  the  dog  star,  will  never  get  the  crop  his  more  intelligent  neigh- 
bors do.  Cabbage  plants  from  the  very  start  should  never  be  allowed  to  get 
stunted  in  any  way. 

LATE  CABBAGES  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

In  the  states  south  of  Virginia,  the  great  difficulty  in  all  the  lower 
country  has  always  been  so  great  in  getting  good,  winter  cabbages,  that  the 
people  have  finally  settled  down  to  the  notion  that  none  but  the  loose,  open- 
headed  collard  is  available  to  them.  While  it  is  true  that  a  well  blanched 
collard  is  not  a  bad  winter  vegetable,  there  is  no  reason  why,  with  proper  care, 
good,  hard-headed  cabbages  may  not  be  grown  in  the  South.  The  chief  rea- 
son for  the  general  failure  has  arisen,  we  believe,  from  the  fact  that  Southern 
gardeners  have  generally  followed  too  closely  Northern  methods  for  the  pro- 
duction of  the  plants,  and  have  sown  the  seed  too  early  to  be  carried  through 
the  long  hot  summers  of  the  South.  The  drought  of  summer  saps  the  vitality 
of  the  plants,  and  they  succumb  before  the  time  they  should  be  set  for  head- 
ing. Anywhere  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard  south  of  Virginia  late  cabbage  seed 
should  never  be  sown  till  the  first  of  August.  Usually  we  have  abundant 
rains  in  August,  but  the  important  point  in  the  production  of  the  plants  is 
that  they  shall  never  lack  for  moisture.  Hence  the  seed  should  be  sown  in 
soil  naturally  moist  and  very  fertile,  or  there  should  be  some  arrangement  for 
supplying  them  with  artificial  irrigation.  The  object  is  to  get,  large  and 
strong,  short-stemmed  plants  by  the  first  of  September,  which  is  early  enough 
to  set  the  plants.  Hence  the  seed  should  be  sown  rather  thinly,  or  the  plants 
transplanted  in  beds  when  very  small,  to  give  them  more  room  to  develop. 
The    soil    for    the    late    crop    must    not    be     a    dry    and    thirsty    one. 


206 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

largely  mixed  with  plants  that  made  round  heads,  and  which  were  later. 
This  mixture  was  a  great  annoyance  to  the  gardener,  as  it  caused  the  crop  to 
hold  the  ground  too  long,  and  gave  him  fewer  of  the  earliest  ones  which  bring 
the  best  price.  The  selection  of  late  years  has  been  to  separate  the  two  types 
so  that  the  round  headed  ones  come  in  as  summer,  or  succession,  cabbages,  fol- 
lowing up  the  early  ones  in  a  uniform  type.  There  are  other  extra  early 
cabbages  of  similar  type  to  the  Wakefield,  with  small  heads  and  earlier  even 
than  the  Wakefield.  The  best  of  these  which  we  have  tested  is  the  Extra 
Early  Pilot. 

succession^  or  summer,  cabbages. 

While  the  first  early  cabbages  should  always  be  sown  in  the  fall,  whether 
they  are  to  be  wintered  over  in  frames  or  set  on  ridges,  we  have  found  that 
the  succession  crop  to  follow  these  is  always  best  sown  either  in  boxes  in  the 
greenhouse  or  in  hot  beds  in  January,  and  hardened  off  in  cold  frames.  Sown 
in  the  fall  they  are  far  more  apt  to  disappoint  the  grower  by  running  to  seed 
in  the  spring  than  are  the  extra  early  sorts.  The  best  method  we  have  used 
with  this  class  of  cabbages  is  to  sow  the  seed  in  the  greenhouse  in  flats  in 
January.  As  soon  as  the  plants  are  large  enough  to  handle,  even  before  they 
have  made  anything  but  the  seed  leaves,  we  prepare  other  flats  about  three 
inches  deep,  by  putting  an  inch  of  well  rotted  manure  in  the  bottom,  and 
then  filling  with  good  potting  compost.  The  plants  are  transplanted  into 
these  about  one  and  a  half  inches  apart,  and  are  kept  in  a  cool  greenhouse  till 
they  get  started  in  the  soil.  We  then  place  the  flats  in  the  cold  frames,  and 
protect  them  for  a  while  with  mats  over  the  glass  on  cold  nights,  and  later 
on  give  all  the  air  practicable.  They  grow  off  rapidly  and  are  ready  to  go 
into  the  field  as  early  as  the  ground  can  be  gotten  into  good  condition.  In 
the  colder  sections  of  the  country,  this  plan  is  the  best  for  the  extra  early  crop 
as  well,  since  the  plants  can  be  had  of  good  size  as  early  as  it  will  be  practica- 
ble to  set  them,  and  it  is  a  great  deal  less  trouble  than  wintering  them  over 
in  cold  frames.  For  a  succession  cabbage  we  use  what  is  known  as  Summer 
cabbage,  Succession,  Improved  Brunswick  and  Maulers  Midsummer. 
Maule's  Deep  Head  is  a  fine  improvement  on  our  old  favorite,  Fottler's  Bruns- 
wick, and  we  are  not  sure  but  that  it  will  take  the  first  place  as  a  succession 
cabbage  for  summer  use. 

LATE  cabbages. 

The  late  cabbage  crop  for  winter  use  is  a  very  important  one  in  the 
northern  parts  of  the  country  and  in  the  elevated  mountain  sections  of  the 
South,  where  the  late  cabbage  crop  has  of  late  years  become  an  important 
matter  commercially,  as  a  crop  for  shipping  to  the  coast  country  of  the  South, 


Cabbages — 207 

lor  all  through  the  growth  of  the  crop  a  plentiful  supply  of  mois- 
ture is  essential  to  success.  With  a  moist  and  fertile  soil  and 
clean  and  rapid  culture,  it  is  easy,  in  the  South  to  get  fine  cabbages 
to  head  about  Christmas,  and  we  never  have  any  weather  to  stop  the 
growth  of  the  crop  much  before  this  date.  Headed  earlier  they  will  not  make 
large  heads  and  will  not  keep  in  winter.  Late  sowing,  rich,  moist  soil  and 
clean  culture  will  make  good  cabbages  in  the  South,  but  for  early  fall  cab- 
bages the  Southern  coast  cities  will  still  have  to  depend  on  the  North  and  the 
mountain  country  of  the  South.  In  the  fertilization  of  the  cabbage  crop, 
early  or  late,  the  important  factors  are  nitrogen  and  phosphoric  acid.  Potash 
is  of  far  less  importance  than  these,  though  a  fair  percentage  is  needed. 

There  are  a  great  many  varieties  of  winter  cabbages  offered  by  seedsmen 
under  special  names,  but  they  all  belong  to  the  two  classes  of  Drumhead  or 
Flat  Dutch,  except  the  Savoys,  which  form  a  peculiar  class  to  themselves. 
Of  course  the  Southern,  or  Georgia  collard,  is  a  distinct  species.  It  is  the 
survival  of  the  fittest  in  the  South,  as  it  can  take  care  of  itself  and  grow  under 
conditions  that  would  be  destructive  to  the  heading  cabbages.  No  Southern 
garden  seems  complete  without  the  collard,  for  it  is  always  ready  to  come  in 
and  fill  a  possible  failure  of  the  cabbage.  Then,  too,  as  we  have  said,  it  is  by 
no  means  a  mean  vegetable  when  properly  frosted  and  blanched  in  winter, 
and  in  many  country  districts  of  the  South  they  have  so  long  been  accustomed 
to  the  absence  of  headed  cabbages  in  winter  that  they  assume  that  the  collard 
is  better.  We  began  some  years  ago  to  make  the  effort  to  develop  a  good  head- 
ing strain  of  the  collard,  and  after  a  while  we  hope  to  be  successful  and  to 
get  a  collard  that  will  head  as  hard  and  as  certainly  as  the  cabbage,  of  which 
it  is  merely  a  variety.  One  of  the  newest  winter  cabbages  is  the  Danish  Ball 
Headed,  which,  under  favorable  conditions,  makes  the  most  solid  head  of  any 
cabbage  with  which  we  are  acquainted.  Whether  it  will  be  suitable  to  South- 
em  conditions  or  not  we  are  as  yet  unable  to  say.  Our  main  dependence  for 
many  years  past  has  been  the  Prize  Flat  Dutch,  of  which  every  seedsman 
offers  his  own  particular  strain.  Of  the  Drumhead  class  the  Prize  Short 
Stemmed  Drumhead,  and  the  Stonemason  a,re  both  excellent,  and  those  who 
have  grown  Maule's  Surehead  claim  that  it  is  unsurpassed.  Of  the  Savoys 
the  Drumhead  Savoy  has  always  done  best  for  us.  The  early  Savoys  are  very 
uncertain  in  the  South  in  our  experience. 


CHAPTER  XXVII. 

CAULIFLOWER. 

Of  all  the  crops  grown  by  the  market  gardener  the  cauliflower  is  the 
one  that  calls  for  the  highest  skill  and  the  heaviest  fertilization.  Good  cauli- 
flower can  only  be  grown  in  the  richest  of  soils,  and  the  effort  to  produce  it  on 
a  thin,  dry  soil,  even  with  the  heaviest  application  of  fertilizers,  will  usually 
result  in  failure.  Gorged  with  food,  on  a  moist  and  retentive  soil,  and  well 
cultivated,  it  will  reward  the  grower  either  North  or  South.  The  only  differ- 
ence is  that  the  Southern  grower  must  be  content  with  the  early  crop,  while 
the  Northern  grower  can  produce  the  fall  crop  which  the  Southern  man  will 
uniformly  fail  to  get,  owing  to  the  difficulty  in  carrying  the  plants  through 
the  hot  weather.  While  on  a  suitable  rich  clay  loam  the  gardener  in  the 
North  can  produce  a  good  crop  of  cauliflowers  with  commercial  fertilizers 
alone,  if  applied  with  a  lavish  hand,  it  is  always  better,  where  practicable, 
to  have  a  fair  supply  of  stable  manure  in  addition,  as  a  means  for  making 
more  moisture  in  the  soil  and  to  supply  the  humus  so  valuable  far  this  pur- 
pose. Twenty  tons  of  stable  manure  plowed  under  for  some  early  crop  will 
make  a  good  preparation  for  the  cauliflower  fall  crop.  For  the  direct  prepar- 
ation for  the  cauliflowers  a  ton  or  more  per  acre  of  the  fertilizer  mixture  ad- 
vised for  early  cabbages,  should  be  well  harrowed  in  before  setting  the  plants, 
and  after  they  start,  several  dressings  of  50  to  100  pounds  per  acre  of  nitrate 
of  soda  will  not  be  lost  in  the  crop.  The  main  point  is  to  never  allow  them  to 
sret  the  slightest  cheek  in  their  growth,  for  the  result  of  such  a  check  will  be 
the  production  of  small  buttons  instead  of  heads. 

EARLY  CAULIFLOWERS  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

In  the  far  South  the  plants  can  be  treated  in  the  same  way  we  do  the 
early  cabbages,  by  setting  them  in  the  fall,  but  north  of  Lower  Georgia  it  is 
better  to  grow  the  crop  in  frames  along  with  winter  lettuce.  These  frames  may 

(208) 


Cauliflower — 209 

be  covered  with  cotton  cloth  or  glass,  the  glass  being  far  better  both  for  the 
lettuce  and  the  cauliflowers.  Our  method  of  growing  the  winter  crop  is  as 
follows,  and  we  have  been  peculiarly  successful  in  getting  perfect  crops  of 
fine  and  solid  heads.  We  sow  the  seed  about  the  last  week  in  September, 
in  a  very  rich  bed,  and  as  soon  as  the  plants  are  strong  we  set  them  in  the 
frames,  putting  six  plants  to  each  three  by  six  feet  sash.  The  remaining 
space  is  then  filled  with  Tennis  Ball  or  Boston  Market  lettuce,  which  will 
come  off  late  in  December  or  early  January.  By  that  time  the  cauliflowers 
will  begin  to  need  all  the  room.  We  air  them  at  all  times  when  the  weather 
is  at  or  above  the  freezing  point,  slipping  sashes  entirely  off  in  sunny  weather, 
and  covering  only  at  night  or  when  freezing  threatens.  By  the  middle  of 
February  the  cauliflowers  are  crowding  against  the  glass,  and  are  finally  hard- 
ened off  and  the  glass  removed  to  other  frames  to  protect  the  tomato  plants, 
early  beets,  etc.,  as  the  cauliflowers  from  that  time  on  need  no  protection. 
If  the  plants  have  not  been  allowed  to  get  any  check  from  lack  of  moisture  or 
lack  of  food  during  the  winter,  the  crop  will  come  off  in  April,  at  a  time  when 
they  usually  command  a  fair  price.  The  crop  is  not  so  profitable  as  it  once 
was,  owing  to  the  quantities  that  come  from  the  far  South,  where  they  grow 
out  side  all  winter,  but  it  is  still  a  fairly  paying  crop.  The  fall  crop,  as  we 
have  said,  belongs  to  the  Northern  gardener,  and  when  well  grown  is  uni- 
formly a  profitable  crop.  An  abundance  of  food  and  plenty  of  moisture  in 
the  soil  to  dissolve  it,  together  with  the  best  of  culture,  are  the  requisites  for 
a  good  crop  of  cauliflower  if  the  seed  stock  is  all  right.  In  localities  where 
cotton  seed  meal  cannot  be  readily  had  we  would  replace  it  in  the  fertilizer 
advised  for  cabbages  and  cauliflowers,  with  an  equivalent  percentage  of  nitro- 
gen, in  the  form  of  dried  blood  or  tankage,  and  would  increase  the  amount 
of  the  acid  phosphate  to  correspond.  Where  the  acid  phosphate  is  more  costly 
than  dissolved  bone  black  or  slag  meal  we  would  use  either  of  these  as  a  source 
for  phosphoric  acid,  especially  for  the  fall  planted  crop. 

CAULIFLOWER    SEED    AND   VARIETIES. 

Cauliflower  seed  is  little  grown  in  this  country,  as  our  climate  makes  it 
an  extremely  uncertain  crop,  at  least  on  the  Atlantic  coast.  Nearly  all  the 
seed  used  in  this  country  comes  from  Denmark.  Of  late  years,  however, 
some  growers  in  the  far  northwest,  on  Puget  Sound,  Washington,  have  been 
producing  a  fine  article.  We  have  tried  the  Puget  Sound  seed  and  seed 
obtained  direct  from  Denmark,  and  the  result  of  a  single  experiment  was  that 
the  Puget  Sound  seed  was  the  better,  since  the  plants  grown  from  every 
one  made  a  head,  though  some  were  set  in  ridges  in  the  fall  like  cabbages 


210 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

and  some  were  grown  in  frames.  The  winter,  fortunately,  was  a  mild  one, 
and  the  plants  set  outside  were  just  as  good  as  those  set  in  frames,  but  a  little 
later.  The  seed  lists  give  a  number  of  varieties,  but  there  is  only  one  strain 
that  we  have  found  worthy  of  attention  in  this  country.  This  is  the  selection 
from  the  Dwarf  Erfurt,  known  as  Snowball.  This  does  so  uniformly  well 
that  we  can  see  no  reason  for  needing  any  other,  especially  for  the  South. 
Some  of  the  later  sorts  may  do  well  in  the  North,  but  for  the  South,  the  only 
cauliflower  is  the  Snowball. 


CHAPTER  XXVIII.     - 

COEN. 

The  cultivation  of  garden  corn  (or  sugar  corn)  is  far  more  commonly 
practiced  in  the  Northern  States  than  in  the  South.  There  are  two  reasons 
for  this.  In  the  first  place,  little  attention  has  been  paid  to  the  breeding  of 
a  sweet  corn  suited  to  the  Southern  climate,  and  the  sweet  corn  from  the 
North,  like  any  corn  brought  far  from  its  origin,  generally  fails  to  make  a 
satisfactory  crop.  In  the  second  place,  the  white  field  corn  grown  in  the 
South  is  a  far  sweeter  article  than  the  Northern  field  corn,  and  the  people 
failing  to  get  good  corn  from  the  Northern  sweet  corn  seed,  have  generally 
fallen  back  on  their  home  field  sorts,  usually  planting  for  an  early  crop  the 
early  corn  grown  in  the  high  mountain  regions  of  the  South.  Northern  sweet 
corn  lacks  stamina  for  enduring  the  Southern  climate,  and  succumbs  to  heat 
and  drought.  StowelFs  Evergreen  and  the  Mammoth  Sugar  are  about  the 
only  sorts  that  are  moderately  successful  south  of  Virginia.  A  number  of 
years  ago  we  undertook  to  breed  up  a  sweet  corn  that  would  meet  our  Southern 
conditions.  In  order  to  get  more  robustness  of  stalk,  and  stamina,  we  started 
with  a  cross  of  the  Leaming,  a  Western  field  com  of  yellow  color,  on  the 
Mammoth  Sugar,  a  wrinkled  white  corn.  We  selected  the  yellow  field  corn 
so  that  the  cross  could  be  identified  by  the  color,  and  because  the  corn  selected 
was  an  earlier  variety  than  the  Mammoth  Sugar.  After  seven  years  of  selec- 
tion of  the  yellow  wrinkled  grains,  we  finally  got  a  variety  well  fixed  in  type 
and  of  fine  quality,  which  wouTd  give  us  ears  for  the  table  by  the  middle  of 
June.  Being  then  compelled  to  move  our  plantation  to  a  locality  where 
we  could  no  longer  keep  it  free  from  other  pollen,  we  made  a  wide  distribution 
of  the  seed  to  farmers  in  all  parts  of  the  State  and  abandoned  the  effort  fur- 
ther. Whether  any  of  those  to  whom  this  corn  was  sent  will  preserve  it  in 
its  purity  or  not  we  fear  is  doubtful.  But  we  established  the  fact  that  by  care 
and  selection  a  sweet  corn  well  suited  to  Southern  conditions  can  be  produced. 
The  culture  of  sweet  corn  does  not  differ  in  any  respect  from  that  of  field  corn, 
and  it  is  not  necessary  here  to  go  into  further  detail  in  regard  to  its  culture. 

(211) 


212 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

But  it  does  require  higher  cultivation  and  heavier  fertilization  than  the 
field  crop  of  grain.  It  is  a  more  valuable  crop,  and  will  better  repay  the 
heavy  manuring  than  the  common  field  corn,  on  which,  at  usual  prices  I 
have  often  said  that  I  could  never  make  an  application  of  a  complete  fertili- 
zer pay.  Corn  of  all  kinds  needs  nitrogen  and  potash  as  the  most  important 
constituents  of  a  fertilizer  mixture,  and  sweet  corn  needs  richer  soil  and 
heavier  fertilizing  than  the  field  crop ;  and  as  it  is  commonly  grown  for  table 
purposes  it  will  pay  to  be  liberal  in  the  matter  of  manuring.  It  is  just  as 
fond  of  humus  in  the  soil  as  the  common  corn  is,  and  is  at  home  on  a  turned 
sod  of  clover,  or  grass,  or  a  pea  stubble,  as  other  corn  is.  As  a  fertilizer  mix- 
ture for  sweet  corn  on  good  truck  land  I  would  suggest  the  following:  Acid 
phosphate,  or  bone  black  superphosphate,  900  pounds;  cotton  seed  meal,  or 
fish  scrap,  600  pounds;  nitrate  of  soda,  100  pounds;  muriate  of  potash,  400 
pounds.  On  a  good  corn  soil  it  will  pay  to  use  500  pounds  of  this  per  acre, 
where  the  corn  is  grown  for  seed  purposes  or  for  selling  green. 

VARIETIES. 

These  are  numerous.  The  very  early  sorts  are  seldom  of  much  value 
anywhere,  and  are  only  of  use  in  small. gardens.  The  earliest  good  sweet  corn 
is  the  Crosby,  while  in  small  gardens  the  Cory  and  First  of  All  may  be 
useful  in  the  North.  The  Black  Mexican  is  a  dark  purplish  grain  corn,  and 
very  sweet.  For  the  market  garden,  however,  the  standards  are  Maule's  XX 
Sugar,  Stow^ell's  Evergreen  and  the  Mammoth  Sugar.  The  last  two  named 
will  do  very  well  in  the  South  if  the  seed  is  selected  there  for  a  few  years. 
Country  Gentleman  has  also  proven  valuable  in  the  South,  and  from  it  a 
very  fine  Southern  sweet  corn  might  be  selected.  But  so  long  as  the  Southern 
people  depend  on  buying  sweet  corn  raised  in  the  Xorth  they  will  never  get 
a  good  corn  for  their  climate. 


CHAPTER    XXIX. 
CELERY. 

In  no  vegetable  cultivated  for  the  market  has  there  been  a  greater  advance 
in  the  methods  used  than  in  the  celery  crop.  Formerly  it  was  grown  almost 
exclusively  as  a  second  crop  in  the  smaller  market  gardens  in  the  immediate 
vicinity  of  the  larger  cities,  and  it  was  assumed  that  this  was  a  crop  that 
would  always  be  grown  in  this  way.  But  the  great  development  of  the  culture 
of  early  summer  and  autumn  celery,  in  the  peaty  swamp  lands  at  Kalamazoo, 
Michigan,  first  demonstrated  the  fact  that  the  celery  crop,  too,  could  be  shipped 
from  a  distance.  As  the  conditions  for  its  growth  became  better  understood, 
it  was  found  that  for  the  late  winter  and  early  spring  crop  Florida  and 
California  had  special  advantages,  and  now  the  celery  crop  is  kept  in  con- 
stant supply  in  all  the  cities  from  early  summer  till  spring  again,  the  supply 
being  almost  continuous  throughout  the  year.  People  in  the  South  have 
found  out  that  it  is  useless  for  them  to  endeavor  to  grow  the  early  celery, 
and  those  in  the  far  North  have  also  found  that  they  cannot  store  and  compete 
with  the  South  and  the  Pacific  coast  in  the  late  winter  and  spring  celery ;  each 
section,  therefore,  has  its  turn  at  the  market,  and  the  crop  is  usually  a 
profitable  one  when  well  grown. 

The  introduction  of  the  self  blanching  varieties,  while  adding  nothing  to 
the  real  table  value  of  the  crop,  has  improved  the  appearance  of  the  plants  as 
table  decorations,  and  has  led  to  a  new  system  of  culture  for  the  self  blanch- 
ing sorts,  by  crowding  them  into  beds  thickly  and  avoiding  the  earthing 
process,  which  is  essential  to  the  production  of  the  best  and  really  crisp  and 
palatable  article.  But  as  celery  is  very  largely  used  for  its  decorative  effect, 
these  white  but  tough  sorts  have  their  place. 

While  at  Kalamazoo  and  other  far  northern  points,  celery  may  be 
blanched  by  hilling  in  summer,  in  by  far  the  larger  part  of  the  eastern  section 
of  the  country  this  cannot  be  done,  owing  to  the  heat  of  late  summer  and  early 
fall.  The  crop  that  interests  most  of  our  readers,  North  and  South,  is  that 
which  comes  in  with  the  roast  turkey  and  cranberry  sauce,  and  lasts  through 
the  greater  part  of  the  winter. 

(213) 


214 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

METHODS   of    CULTURE. 

There  are  two  general  methods  of  cultivating  celery.  The  first  is  that 
described  by  the  late  Peter  Henderson,  in  his  "Gardening  for  Profit."  The 
publication  of  this  book  was  the  first  intimation  to  many  that  the  old  practice 
of  digging  a  deep  trench  in  which  to  set  the  celery  was  no  longer  the  practice 
of  the  men  who  had  to  make  profit  out  of  the  crop.  In  getting  the  plants 
Mr.  Henderson  advised  to  sow  the  seeds  in  rows  on  a  well  prepared  bed  nine 
inches  apart,  then  to  tramp  the  rows  with  the  foot,  and  cover  half  an  inch  by 
drawing  the  back  of  the  rake  lightly  over  the  bed.  This  is  to  be  done  early 
in  April  in  the  latitude  of  New  York.  In  our  experience  we  have  not  suc- 
ceeded well  with  this  plan.  We  have  made  the  following  modification.  We 
sow  about  the  last  of  April  on  a  well  fined  bed  of  light  and  rich  soil.  Lines 
are  drawn  about  ten  inches  apart  across  the  bed,  and  not  over  quarter  of  an 
inch  deep.  We  then  sow  the  seed  thinly  in  these  marks,  and  beat  down  the 
surface  of  the  bed  with  the  back  of  the  spade.  Then  at  once  we  cover  the 
whole  bed  with  a  layer  of  gunny  cloth,  such  as  grain  sacks  are  made  of. 
This  prevents  the  drying  of  the  surface,  and  the  seed  germinates  much  more 
readily.  As  soon  as  they  are  seen  sprouting,  the  cloth  is  raised  off  them  and 
suspended  on  stakes  so  as  to  still  shade  the  bed  somewhat,  and  as  the  plants 
advance  in  growth  and  form  their  green  leaves  the  cover  is  entirely  removed 
This  sowing  can  best  be  done  in  an  unused  cold  frame,  after  the  sashes  are 
stored  away,  as  the  cloth  can  easily  be  stretched  over  the  bed.  Having  the 
plants  in  such  a  frame  there  is  the  further  advantage  that  we  can  give  them 
the  varying  shade  of  a  lath  screen  during  the  hot  weather.  As  soon  as  the 
plants  are  large  enough  to  handle  they  are  lifted  and  transplanted  in  the 
frame  at  about  two  inches  apart  each  way,  and  the  tap  roots  are  shortened. 
We  then  make  screens  of  building  laths,  tacked  on  a  frame  the  size  of  the 
ordinary  hotbed  sash,  about  one  inch  apart,  and  place  these  over  the  bed. 
This  gives  an  ever  varying  shade  and  sunshine,  and  prevents  the  rapid  drying 
out  of  the  soil  after  watering.  Constant  and  regular  watering  is  essential 
to  success  with  the  plants,  and  as  they  grow  it  is  well  to  clip  the  tops  at 
intervals,  so  as  to  make  the  plants  stout  and  strong  for  their  final  transplan- 
ing.  In  the  North,  this  will  be  for  the  fall  and  winter  crop,  from  the  middle 
of  June  to  the  end  of  July,  and  from  Virginia  southward,  from  the  middle  of 
August  to  the  last  of  September.  The  first  week  in  September  is  usually 
early  enough  in  most  Southern  sections.  In  the  far  South,  where  success 
can  be  had  in  getting  the  seed  started  in  August,  good  plants  can  be  had  for 
late  planting  to  supply  the  demand  for  spring  celery.  But  of  late  years,  the 
Kalamazoo  growers  have  made  a  specialty  of  growing  late  plants  for  Southern 


Celery — 215 

shipment,  and,  as  a  rule,  it  is  safer  for  the  Florida  grower  to  buy  his  plants 
than  to  attempt  to  grow  them  in  hot  weather.  The  Northern  plan,  as  de- 
tailed by  Mr.  Henderson,  is  to  set  the  plants  on  land  that  has  been  heavily 
manured  for  some  early  crop,  as  a  fresh  addition  of  manure  to  the  celery  may 
do  more  harm  than  good.  The  plants  are  set  on  well  prepared  land  in  rows 
three  feet  apart  and  six  inches  apart  in  the  rows,  and  the  roots  well  firmed 
in  planting,  by  tramping  on  each  side  of  the  row  after  setting.  As  the  celery 
starts  to  grow  the  cultivator  is  run  between  the  rows,  and  by  the  middle  of 
August  the  plants  are  drawn  close  by  hand  and  a  little  earth  packed  to  them 
to  keep  them  upright.  Later  on  the  earth  is  plowed  to  the  rows,  and  the 
banking  then  completed  with  the  spade  for  the  celery  that  is  to  be  used  in  the 
fall ;  very  little  banking  being  done  to  that  for  the  winter,  which  is  taken  up 
and  stored  in  trenches  as  deep  as  the  celery  is  tall,  and  is  gradually  covered 
with  hay  or  straw  as  the  weather  gets  colder,  so  as  to  keep  out  the  frost. 

From  Baltimore  southward  a  different  plan  is  used  by  gardeners.  I 
once  asked  Mr.  Henderson  why  he  did  not  try  our  plan.  He  replied  that  he 
wished  he  could,  but  that  their  winters  were  entirely  too  cold  to  make  it  a 
success.  The  method  is  as  follows.  Selecting  land,  as  in  the  North,  that  has 
been  heavily  manured  for  an  early  crop,  we  add  some  commercial  fertilizer 
rich  in  potash,  which  the  stable  manure,  which  may  have  been  used  in  the 
spring,  lacked.  The  land  is,  of  course,  prepared,  as  well  as  possible.  A  line 
is  tightly  stretched  along  one  side  of  the  bed  to  be  planted.  A  board  is  pre- 
pared one  foot  wide  by  six  feet  long,  and  the  ends  accurately  squared.  On 
each  side  of  the  board  notches  are  cut  six  inches  apart,  beginning  six  inches 
from  each  end.  The  planter  sets  the  end  of  the  board  square  or  perpendic- 
ular to  the  stretched  line,  and  sets  a  plant  at  each  notch  on  each  side.  The 
board  is  then  moved  another  space  and  another  row  set,  and  this  process  is 
continued  to  the  end  of  the  bed.  We  then  have  a  bed  with  rows  crosswise 
a  foot  apart,  and  eleven  plants  in  each  row  six  inches  apart.  A  space  of  eight 
feet  is  then  left  for  earthing  and  another  bed  set  in  the  same  way,  till  the  land 
is  planted.  Sometimes,  when  the  beds  are  situated  so  that  they  can  be  irri- 
gated, a  rim  of  earth  is  raised  around  the  edge  of  the  beds  so  that  the  water 
can  flow  all  over  and  be  retained  on  the  bed  only.  The  setting  is  done  early 
in  September,  and  a  month  later  the  plants  will  have  begun  to  spread  their 
leaves.  They  must  then  be  "handled."  For  this  purpose  we  use  two  pieces 
of  twine  with  sharpened  pegs  tied  to  the  ends.  A  peg  is  stuck  at  the  end 
of  a  row,  a  turn  is  made  around  each  plant  in  the  row,  and  finally  the  peg 
in  the  other  end  of  the  string  is  stuck  at  the  other  end  of  the  row.  A  second 
row  is  then  treated  in  the  same  way,  and  earth  is  shoveled  in  between  them. 
The  whole  bed  is  gone  over  in  the  same  manner  and  then  the  earth  is  packed 


216 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

tightly  to  each  plant  by  hand.  As  the  nights  grow  cool  earthing  is  continued 
in  the  same  manner,  only  that  as  each  pair  of  rows  is  earthed  the  soil  is  drawn 
down  level,  and  before  loosening  the  strings  a  ridge  of  soil  is  laid  between 
the  rows  and  not  pulled  down,  so  as  to  keep  the  plants  in  narrow  trenches 
nearly  even  with  the  tops,  and  thus  induce  them  to  draw  up  erect.  At  next 
earthing  this  ridge  is  pulled  flat  and  another  set  up.  While  earthing  up  the 
rows  the  soil  is  carried  up  outside  the  ends  of  the  rows  six  inches  or  more 
thick,  so  that  when  finally  earthed  up,  the  bed  is  six  feet  wide.  The  earthing 
is  continued  till  late  in  December,  and  then,  as  far  north  as  Baltimore,  a 
thick  layer  of  earth  is  placed  over  the  whole  and  covered  with  straw  or  forest 
leaves,  and  corn  stalks,  for  the  winter.  From  North  Carolina  southward 
the  final  covering  should  be  of  pine  leaves  placed  on  thickly,  with  no  earth 
cover  on  top;  which  will  generally  have  to  be  increased  during  the  winter  as 
the  hardy  celery  never  really  stops  growing  here.  Celery  is  the  most  labori- 
ous crop  of  the  market  gardener,  but  at  the  same  time,  when  well  grown  and 
put  in  market  in  good  shape,  it  is  one  of  the  most  profitable.  I  should 
have  said  that  the  eight  foot  spaces  between  the  beds  must  be  kept  well  culti- 
vated and  fine  for  shoveling. 

OUR  METHODS   OF  BLANCHING   CELERY. 

A  practice  has  grown  up  in  sections  North,  where  the  crop  can  be  grown 
early  in  Summer,  of  placing  boards  on  each  side  of  the  single  rows,  so  that 
the  celery  is  crowded  for  light  and  runs  up  tall  and  tender.  This  method  is 
used  only  for  early  celery,  since  the  boards  would  not  be  a  sufficient  protec- 
tion against  the  cold  late  in  the  season.  The  self  blanching  varieties  are  used 
for  this  crop  more  than  others,  and,  in  fact,  the  self  blanching  sorts  are  only 
fit  for  such  treatment,  as  they  are  far  inferior  in  quality  to  those  kinds  that 
are  commonly  grown  and  blanched  by  earthing.  They  make  beautiful,  white 
stalks,  but  the  quality  is  very  inferior. 

While  in  the  northern  parts  of  the  country  celery  is  largely  grown  on 
black,  peaty,  marsh  land,  where  it  attains  a  fine  size  and  appearance,  in 
quality  this  celery  is  far  inferior  to  that  grown  on  a  moist  and  fertile  clay 
soil;  being  more  pithy  and  hollow  stalked.  The  finest  quality  of  celery  is 
that  gr6\\Ti  from  a  good  strain  of  seed  on  a  clay  soil  of  good  fertility,  and 
irrigated,  as  needed,  in  dry  weather.  While  it  may  not  be  so  large  and  showy 
as  the  product  of  the  marshes,  it  is  far  superior  in  solidity  and  crispness,  qual- 
ities essential  to  a  fine  celery. 

In  regard  to  the  fertilizing  of  the  celery  crop  the  following  from  Bulle- 
tin No.  132  of  the  Cornell  University  Experiment  Station  will  be  of  interest. 


Celery — 217 

The  land  on  which  the  experiments  were  made  was  flat,  muck  land,  or  half 
wild  meadow,  broken  up  that  year.  It  had  never  grown  celery  nor  had  it  ever 
received  any  fertilizers.  The  results  of  a  series  of  various  applications  is 
summarized  as  follows :  "All  the  records  show  that  wood  ashes  gave  the  best 
results,  although  a  combination  of  nitrate  of  soda.  South  Carolina  rock  and 
sulphate  of  potash  promises  to  do  well.  Muriate  of  potash  excelled  the  sul- 
phate. Nitrate  of  soda,  alone,  gave  poor  results.  The  check  plats,  without 
fertilizers,  were  not  worth  the  growing." 

FERTILIZERS  FOR  THE  CELERY  CROP. 

We  have  said  that  where  the  celery  crop  follows  a  heavily  fertilized  early 
crop  on  a  good  moist  soil,  there  is  little  need  for  further  manuring.  But  cel- 
ery is  especially  fond  of  potassic  manures  and  nitrogen.  Hence  if  there  has 
l)een  any  deficiency  in  the  early  manuring,  there  should  be  some  commercial 
fertilizer  applied.  We  would  not  use  stable  manure  on  the  celery  crop  direct, 
because  of  its  drying  tendency  in  heavy  applications.  The  following,  used 
at  rate  of  1,000  pounds  per  acre,  will  be  found  well  suited  to  the  crop:  Acid 
phosphate  or  dissolved  bone  black,  800  pounds;  fish  scrap  or  tankage,  800 
pounds ;  muriate  of  potash,  400  pounds  to  make  a  ton.  In  all  these  formulas 
we  give  the  component  parts  of  a  ton  of  2,000  pounds.  But  of  course  the 
same  proportions  can  be  used  in  smaller  quantities.  The  fertilizer  should 
be  applied  at  least  a  week  before  setting  the  plants,  and  should  be  well  mixed 
with  the  soil  by  harrowing,  as  otherwise  the  caustic  effects  of  the  potash  may 
injure  the  roots  of  the  plants.  Put  the  fertilizer  broadcast,  for  either  in  rows 
or  beds  the  plants  will  finally  get  it.  The  same  fertilization  will  answer  for 
the  thick  planting  adopted  with  the  self  blanching  sorts. 

VARIETIES  OF  CELERY. 

Formerly  the  giant  sorts  were  commonly  planted,  and  they  are  preferred 
still,  in  the  South,  to  some  extent.  But  by  far  the  finest  quality  is  found  in 
the  dwarf  and  half-dwarf  varieties.  Golden  Heart  or  Golden 
Dwarf  is  the  sort  most  generally  popular.  White  Plume  and 
Golden  Self  Blanching  are  the  kinds  generally  used  for  self 
blanching.  In  the  South  the  Giant  Pascal  is  the  most  popular 
sort,  and  the  Sandringham  is  also  found  to  be  excellent.  The  Boston  growers 
use  the  dwarf  sort  known  as  the  Boston  Market,  a  very  dwarf  sort  that  makes 
a  great  many  tender  and  crisp  offshoots,  and  is  a  very  good  variety  for  bed 
culture.  Pink  celeries  are  sometimes  praised  as  better  than  white,  but  the 
market  does  not  care  for  them. 


CHAPTER  XXX. 
CUCUMBERS. 

Cucumbers  are  grown  by  the  Southern  market  gardeners  in  grestt  quan- 
tities for  early  shipment  to  the  Northern  markets.  They  are  ako  very  large- 
ly grown  in  the  North  by  those  who  are  not  regular  market  gardeners,  for  the 
supply  of  the  pickle  factories  late  in  the  summer.  Then  there  are  large  num- 
bers grown  near  all  the  large  cities  in  hot  houses  in  winter;  of  this  culture 
we  will  have  more  to  say  in  the  proper  place.  It  was  formerly  thought  essen- 
tial for  all  the  cucurbitaceous  plants,  such  as  cucumbers,  melons  and  squashes, 
that  the  hills  should  be  prepared  with  a  liberal  deposit  of  stable  manure  or 
compost  in  the  hills,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  where  facilities  exist  for  this 
compost  it  is  still  an  excellent  plan.  But,  in  growing  the  early  cucumber 
crop  on  a  large  scale  and  at  a  distance  from  a  supply  of  stable  manure,  it  has 
been  found  necessary  to  use  artificial  fertilizers.  As  the  value  of  the  crop  de- 
pends on  its  earliness  the  artificial  manures  are  better  for  forcing  this  early 
growth. 

A  mellow,  sandy  loam,  neither  wet  nor  too  dry,  is  the  best  for  the  early 
crop.  The  soil  should  be  plowed  very  early  in  the  season,  shallowly,  to  de- 
stroy the  hardy  weeds  that  may  be  appearing,  or  the  crop  may  be  made  to 
follow  the  crop  of  early  cabbages  which  have  been  heavily  fertilized,  by  plant- 
ing hills  in  alternate  rows.  But  a  better  crop  can  be  grown  by  preparing  the 
land  especially  for  the  cucumbers.  In  preparing  the  land  for  planting  it  is 
plowed  in  beds  six  feet  wide,  and  a  subsoil  plow  is  run  deeply  in  each  dead 
furrow.  The  fertilizer  is  then  applied  in  the  dead  furrows  heavily,  and  a 
furrow  is  turned  from  each  side  so  as  to  make  a  ridge  (or  list)  over  the  ma- 
nure. We  then  flatten  this  list  with  a  hand  roller,  and  sow  the  seeds  while 
the  land  is  fresh.  The  first  cultivation  is  to  plow  the  land  to  the  rows  so 
that  the  rows  of  plants  will  stand  on  top  the  lands  and  the  new  dead  furrows 
are  in  the  middles.  This  is  done  after  a  good  stand  has  been  secured,  and  the 
earth  is  drawn  to  the  plants,  so  as  to  have  the  roots  deep  in  the  moist  soil. 
The  plants  should  be  thinned  to  about  one  foot  apart  in  the  row.  Subsequent 
cultivation  is  with  the  small  tooth  cultivator  till  the  vines  are  running  so  as 

(218) 


Cucumbers — 219 

to  stop  further  cultivation.  The  crop  is  always  cut  with  a  small  piece  of  the 
stem  attached,  and  the  cucumbers  are  shipped  in  slatted  crates.  One  thous- 
and bushels  per  acre  of  marketable  cucumbers  is  a  common  crop  with  the 
gardeners  of  the  South  Atlantic  coast,  and  the  same  method  of  culture  is 
equally  well  adapted  to  the  crop  in  any  section,  but  the  planting  season  must 
follow  the  disappearance  of  frost  from  South  northward,  as  the  cucumber  is 
a  tender  plant  and  must  not  be  planted  till  the  soil  is  warmed. 

VARIETIES  OF  CUCUMBERS. 

The  standard  variety  with  the  market  gardener  is  the  White  Spine. 
Every  enterprising  seedsman  has  his  special  strain  of  this  variety,  and  it 
has  never  been  superseded  as  a  variety  for  field  culture,  and  is  also  grown 
to  a  large  extent  under  glass.  For  the  late  crop,  for  pickles,  in  the  North, 
some  of  the  strains  akin  to  the  Long  Green  are  used.  The  Perfected  Jersey 
Pickle  is  one  of  the  best  of  these.  There  are  some  small  varieties  that  are 
earlier  than  the  White  Spine,  but  they  are  of  no  value  to  the  truck  farmer 
and  only  of  use  in  the  private  garden  for  their  earliness.  The  little  prickly 
Gherkin  is  also  grown  to  some  extent  for  pickling.  The  late  crop  of  pick- 
ling cucumbers  belongs  almost  exclusively  to  the  Northern  gardener  and 
farmer,  since  the  late  crop  is  rarely  a  success  in  the  South,  owing  to  the 
drought  and  the  borers.  But  in  low,  moist,  bottom  land  they  may  be  well 
grown  even  in  the  South.  These  pickles  are  planted  in  mid-summer,  and 
commonly  occupy  land  from  which  an  early  crop  that  was  heavily  manured 
has  been  removed,  and  no  special  manuring  is  given  on  such  land. 

FERTILIZERS    FOR    THE    CUCUMBER    CROP. 

As  this  crop  is  fertilized,  as  noted,  entirely  in  the  furrow,  the  fertilizer 
need  not  be  used  heavier  than  500  pounds  per  acre.  Just  as  the  plants  ap- 
pear through  the  ground  it  has  been  our  practice  to  keep  them  dusted  with 
fine  bone  meal,  to  keep  off  the  bugs.  This  also  helps  the  growth  of  the 
plants.  For  a  fertilizer  mix  acid  phosphate,  900  pounds ;  fish  scrffp  or  tank- 
age, 700  pounds;  nitrate  of  soda,  200  pounds;  muriate  of  potash,  200 
pounds.  In  localities  where  the  phosphate  made  from  bone  black,  or  the 
Thomas  slag  phosphate,  can  be  had  more  cheaply  than  the  acid  phosphate 
made  from  the  dissolved  rock,  they  can  be  used  in  place  of  acid  phosphate  in 
any  of  the  formulas,  and  fish  scrap,  a  good  article  of  tankage,  or  dried  blood, 
may  be  used  indiscriminately  without  any  serious  change  in  the  nitrogen  con- 
tent. Where  cotton  seed  meal  is  used  as  a  source  of  nitrogen  it  must  be  used 
in  larger  quantity.     The  tables  appended  in  the  back  part  of  this  book  will 


220 — Crop  Growing  axd  Crop  Feedixg 

show  just  what  percentages  of  nitrogen  and  other  ingredients  are  found  in  all 
of  these  things,  and  we  will  hereafter  try  to  show  how  certain  percentages  may 
be  made  in  the  mixtures. 

STARTING   CUCUMBERS   UNDER   GLASS   TO   ADVANCE   THEM. 

In  many  works  on  gardening  the  advice  is  given  to  sow  the  seeds  on  in- 
verted sods,  place  them  under  glass  and  water  them;  and  then  transplant  to 
the  field,  sod  and  all.  This  may  be  made  to  answer  where  blue  grass  sods  are 
plentiful,  but  it  is  at  best  a  clumsy  and  inconvenient  plan,  and  in  the  South, 
where  sod  is  mainly  Bermuda  grass,  it  is  totally  impracticable.  The  market 
gardener  should  always  be  provided  with  an  abundance  of  frames  and  sashes, 
and  with  flower  pots  of  various  sizes.  These  pots  can  now  be  had  by  the 
thousand  so  cheaply  it  will  not  pay  anyone  to  go  to  the  trouble  of  cutting  sods 
for  starting  his  plants.  The  method  we  have  used  successfully  to  get  an  extra 
early  start  with  cucumbers  and  muskmelons  is  to  use  pots  of  the  four  inch 
size.  These  are  filled  with  the  regular  potting  compost  used  in  the  culture  of 
greenhouse  plants,  and  the  soil  well  settled  in  them  to  within  an  inch  of  the 
top.  They  are  then  packed  in  cold  frames  evenly  and  level,  and  seeds  are 
scattered  on  the  pots,  three  or  four  to  a  pot,  and  the  same  rich  compost  is 
sifted  over  the  whole. 

This  is  done  after  hard  frosts  are  over,  and  the  cover  of  the  glass  sash 
will  be  sufficient  protection.  But  some  means  should  be  at  hand  to  cover 
the  glass  with  a  mat  should  an  unexpectedly  hard  frost  occur.  The  pots 
must  not  be  allowed  to  suffer  for  water,  and  the  plants  should  be  thinned 
to  two  in  a  pot  as  the  rough  leaves  appear.  When  the  weather  is  settled  and 
the  ground  warm  they  are  easily  knocked  out  of  the  pots,  with  balls  entire, 
and  set  in  the  rows.  We  always  set  them  a  little  deeper  than  they  were  in  the 
pots  and  have  had  very  great  success  in  getting  a  perfect  stand.  We  see 
at  times  all  sorts  of  curious  contrivances  advised  for  the  starting  of  plants, 
such  as  hollowing  out  turnips,  cutting  sods,  and  melting  the  tops  and  bottoms 
from  tin  cans.  But  the  true  gardener  knows  that  none  of  these  things  are 
so  good  or  so  cheap  as  the  regular  flower  pot.  The  four-inch  size  can  now 
be  had  for  about  one  cent  each,  and  with  care  will  last  for  many  years,  and 
are  far  cheaper  and  better  than  any  of  the  troublesome  substitutes  advised. 
A  gardener,  like  a  farmer,  should  be  a  systematic  and  business-like  man,  and 
never  a  potterer  or  a  piddler,  spending  more  labor  over  a  substitute  than  a 
real  garden  appliance  would  cost.  Tin  cans  and  hollowed  turnips  are  on  a 
par  with  the  plant  cloth  which  some  gardeners  think  as  good  as  glass  on  their 
frames.  Good  gardening  calls  for  the  best  garden  appliances,  Just  as  good 
farming  calls  for  the  best  tools. 


CHAPTER  XXXI. 

EGG  PLANTS. 

This  crop  is  grown  to  some  extent  in  the  far  South,  in  Florida,  as  a  crop 
to  ship  North,  but  is  grown  very  little  in  the  Middle  South ;  and  again  in  the 
Northern  market  gardens  it  is  rather  largely  grown.  The  gardener  from  the 
North,  coming  South,  is  surprised  to  find  that  in  private  gardens  here  it  is 
rarely  seen,  and  in  the  markets  of  the  Southern  cities  is  rarely  called  for. 
This  is  largely  owing  to  the  fact  that,  like  the  tomato,  it  is  a  more  difficult 
crop  to  grow  in  the  South  than  in  the  North,  owing  to  the  ravages  of  the 
blight,  which  is  worse,  if  possible,  on  the  egg  plant  than  on  the  tomato.  The 
egg  plant  is  a  very  tender  plant,  and  the  methods  used  for  the  production  of 
the  tomato  will  hardly  do  for  it,  since  any  effort  to  harden  off  the  plants  in 
frames  is  sure  to  result  in  a  stunted  growth  and  comparative  failure.  Our 
practice  is  to  sow  the  seeds  about  the  last  of  February  in  a  warm  greenhouse 
or  a  hotbed  under  glass,  and  as  soon  as  large  enough  to  handle  transplant  to 
pots  two  and  a  half  inches  in  size.  As  soon  as  the  roots  show  around  the 
balls  in  these  pots  they  are  transferred  to  four-inch  pots  and  still  kept  in  the 
house.  Not  until  the  ground  is  well  warmed  and  vegetation  active  outside 
should  they  be  transferred  to  the  open  ground.  We  have  then  found  that  no 
matter  how  much  fertilizer  may  have  been  used  on  the  land  that  a.  top  dress- 
ing of  stable  manure  as  a  mulch  to  the  surface  is  always  a  great  advantage, 
particularly  if  the  land  is  a  dry  clay  and  inclined  to  bake.  We  set  the  plants 
three  feet  apart  each  way,  and  aim  never  to  allow  a  crust  to  form  on  the  sur- 
face. The  plants  need  as  close  watching  from  the  Colorado  beetle  as  the 
potato  plant.  In  fact,  we  think  they  are  fonder  of  the  egg  plants  than  of  the 
potatoes.  Rather  than  use  poison  we  prefer  to  pick  the  mature  beetles  and 
crush  the  orange  colored  masses  of  eggs  on  the  under  side  of  the  leaves.  If 
the  crop  is  very  early  it  will  be  a  profitable  one,  but  later  the  price  goes  too 
low  for  distant  shipment.  Many  years  ago  in  Northern  Maryland,  having  an 
abundance  of  vacant  frames  after  our  tomatoes  had  been  transplanted  to  the 
field,  we  set  600  sashes  with  two  egg  plants  each,  and  kept  the  glass  over  them 

(221) 


222 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

at  night  till  June.  In  the  rich  manured  soil  of  the  frames  they  grew 
astonishingly,  and  were  ready  for  market  before  the  Charleston  crop  was  in, 
and  brought,  for  the  first,  $4  per  peach  basket;  the  largest  price  we  ever  got 
for  egg  plants.  The  gardener  in  the  Upper  South  who  is  wise  enough  to  in- 
vest largely  in  glass,  can  always  compete  on  favorable  terms  with  those  south 
of  him  in  the  open  ground. 

VARIETIES  OF  EGG  PLANTS. 

The  standard  variety  of  egg  plant  in  all  the  market  gardens  North  and 
South  is  that  generally  known  as  the  New  York  Improved.  There  are  many 
strains  of  this.  The  Black  Pekin  is  earlier,  smaller  and  of  fine  quality. 
The  Early  Long  Purple  is  the  earliest  of  the  older  sorts,  but  not  grown  for 
market,  as  the  market  demands  round  sorts.  We  have  grown  this  season,  for 
the  first  time,  a  variety  from  Italy  which  seems  to  be  a  cross  between  the  Black 
Pekin  and  Early  Long  Purple.  It  is  of  the  same  shape  as  the  Long  Purple, 
with  the  purplish  foliage  of  the  Black  Pekin.  It  is  very  early  and  wonder- 
fully productive,  and  so  far  has  resisted  the  blight  which  destroyed  our  New 
York  Improved  to  a  plant  in  the  adjoining  rows.  Its  small  size  and  odd 
shape  will  be  against  it  as  a  market  sort,  but  in  quality  it  is  ahead  of  any- 
thing we  have  ever  tried  in  the  egg  plant  family.  It  is  common  to  see  as 
many  as  ten  fruits  on  a  plant  ready  to  cut  and  many  more  forming.  The 
fruits  are  inclined  to  grow  crooked  like  a  crookneck  squash.  What  the  name 
of  this  is  we  do  not  know,  as  the  seed  was  sent  us  by  number  for  trial  from  the 
division  of  the  Agricultural  Department  for  the  introduction  of  new  plants. 
We  believe,  at  least  for  the  family  garden  in  the  South  it  is  a  valuable 
acquisition. 

FERTILIZATION. 

It  is  useless  to  try  to  grow  egg  plants  unless  the  soil  is  rich  and  heavily 
fertilized.  They  can  be  set  on  the  land  where  the  crop  of  early  peas  has  been 
gathered  and  the  vines  plowed  under.  But  as  the  pea  crop  does  not  need  the 
heavy  fertilization  of  other  garden  crops  there  should  be  an  application  of  not 
less  than  1,000  pounds  per  acre  of  the  mixture  advised  for  the  cucumber  crop, 
and,  if  possible,  in  the  South  at  least,  a  further  mulching  of  stable  manure 
on  the  surface  after  or  just  before  the  plants  are  set. 


CHAPTER  XXXII. 

LETTUCE. 

In  all  parts  of  the  country,  North  and  South,  in  the  open  ground  and 
under  glass,  there  is  no  crop  that  engages  the  attention  of  the  skilled  gardener 
more  than  the  lettuce  crop.  This,  of  course,  refers  to  the  winter  culture  of 
the  crop  in  frames  in  the  South  and  in  heated  houses  in  the  North.  The 
outdoor  crop,  while  an  important  one,  is  of  far  less  profit  and  importance 
than  that  grown  under  protection.  In  Florida  the  crop  is  grown,  all  through 
the  cooler  part  of  the  year,  outside,  and  as  we  advance  up  the  coast  we  find 
lettuce  engaging  the  attention  of  the  winter  gardener  in  frames,  protected 
either  by  awnings  of  cotton  cloth  rolled  up  and  down  on  rafters,  or  in  the  reg- 
ular cold  frames  with  glass  sashes.  In  the  North  acre  after  acre  of  steam  and 
hot  water  heated  houses  is  devoted  to  the  winter  production  of  the  lettuce 
crop.  And  with  all  this  production,  there  has  never  been  a  time  when  good 
head  lettuce  has  failed  to  bring  a  good  price  during  the  cold  months  from 
November  to  April. 

The  gardeners  along  the  South  Atlantic  seaboard  use  cotton  cloth  almost 
exclusively  for  the  production  of  winter  and  early  spring  lettuce.  We  have 
long  tried  to  show  them  that  this  is  a  mistake,  but  the  first  cost  of  the  glass 
is  so  heavy  that  they  hesitate  to  undertake  a  large  area  in  glass.  The  cloth 
covered  frames  cost  $500  per  acre,  and  the  cloth  has  to  be  renewed  every  sec- 
ond year.  If  a  heavy  snow  comes,  the  gardener  with  cloth  covered  frames  is 
in  a  bad  way,  for  the  snow  will  slide  on  his  bagging  cloth  and  press  down  on 
the  plants,  and  hence  must  be  removed.  As  cold  always  follows  a  snowfall, 
he  then  has  not  sufficient  protection  from  the  cloth  and  his  plants  get  dam- 
aged. With  the  glass  sashes  a  snowfall  is  a  protection  against  the  cold  that 
follows,  as  it  can  be  left  on  the  frames.  Experienced  growers  have  admitted 
to  me  that  they  could  grow  a  third  more  and  better  lettuce  in  glass  frames, 
but  they  hesitate  to  make  the  expenditure  of  $3,000  per  acre  for  the  glass 
when  the  crop  is  worth  that  much  per  acre  annually  under  cloth,  and  would 

(223) 


224 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

be  worth  more  under  glass.  In  fact,  here  in  the  Upper  South,  we  can  pro- 
duce in  a  simple  cold  frame,  with  mats  for  protection  in  unusual  cold,  as  good 
lettuce  in  the  dead  of  winter  as  the  Northern  gardener  can  get  in  his  expen- 
sively constructed  and  heated  greenhouse.  The  frames  used  in  the  South  for 
the  production  of  winter  lettuce  are  made  12  feet  wide  and  have  a  ridge  pole 
running  the  length  of  frame,  one-third  the  width,  from  the  north  side,  so  as 
to  give  a  long  slope  to  the  south  and  a  short  one  to  the  north.  The  canvas 
is  sometimes  on  rollers,  like  awnings,  and  sometimes  is  merely  stretched  over 
the  pole,  and  held  in  place  by  eyelets  on  hooks  in  the  sides  of  the  frame.  Aside 
from  the  imperfect  protection  of  the  cloth  there  is  the  further  disadvantage 
that  the  whole  must  be  taken  off  to  give  the  plants  full  sunlight,  and  in  cold 
weather  this  cannot  be  done,  and  the  plants  get  drawn  in  the  partial  shade ; 
while  under  glass,  when  the  weather  is  too  cold  to  uncover,  they  are  exposed 
to  the  full  sunshine  and  grow  sturdy  and  short  stemmed  and  head  far  better. 
The  frames  for  growing  lettuce  under  glass  are  made  about  six  feet  wide,  so 
as  to  admit  a  3x6  foot  sash.  The  back  of  the  frame  towards  the  north 
is  made  18  inches  high  and  the  front  12  inches  so  as  to  give  a  slope  to  the 
sun.  Some  make  the  frames  wider  and  have  a  ridge  pole  and  a  short  wooden 
span  to  the  north,  but  this  makes  the  frames  unhandy,  and  the  lettuce  under 
the  wooden  slopes  is  poor.  The  chief  points  to  be  observed  in  growing  frame 
lettuce  after  the  preparation  of  the  soil  of  which  we  will  speak,  are  to  keep 
it  as  near  40  degrees  Fahrenheit  at  night  as  possible  and  to  give  air  in  all 
sunny  weather  to  prevent  too  high  a  temperature,  which  would  result  in  a 
flabby  growth  and  poor  crop.  At  all  times  when  the  sun  shines,  and  that  is 
nearly  all  the  time  in  the  South,  and  the  temperature  is  above  25  above  zero, 
we  admit  some  air,  and  when  there  is  no  frost  we  fully  expose  the  plants,  even 
at  night. 

CULTURE  of  frame  LETTUCE  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

The  best  soil  for  the  lettuce  crop  is  a  sandy  loam.  This  inside  the 
frames  should  have  a  heavy  coat  of  black  leaf  mold  from  the  forest  screened  to 
remove  all  coarse  roots  and  trash,  and  spread  three  inches  deep  in  the  frames. 
The  frame  is  then  ready  for  the  application  of  the  fertilizer.  As  this  should 
be  used  without  stint  and  should  have,  on  such  a  soil,  a  large  percentage  of 
potash,  it  should  be  applied  at  the  rate  of  a  ton  and  a  half  to  two  tons  per  acre 
of  area  enclosed,  several  weeks  before  setting  the  plants,  so  that  the  caustic 
effect  of  the  potash  may  disappear.  On  a  clay-loam  soil  the  fertilization  is 
better  with  a  heavy  application  of  well  rotted  stable  manure  and  a  lighter 
dressing  of  the  phosphatic  and  potassic  fertilizers.     The  wide  awake  gar- 


Lettuce — 225 

dener  in  the  South  will  always  plan  for  two  crops  during  the  winter,  by  re- 
planting as  rapidly  as  the  early  (or  Christmas)  crop  is  out.  For  the  first 
crop,  to  come  off  from  the  first  of  December  to  Christmas,  seed  of  the  Tennis 
Ball  or  Boston  Market  should  be  sown  the  last  week  in  August,  and  will  be 
ready  for  the  frames  a  month  later.  These  varieties  can  be  planted  six  inches 
apart  when  the  frame  is  occupied  by  lettuce  alone,  but  when  a  crop  of  cauli- 
flower is  also  grown  in  the  frames  they  will  occupy  the  place  of  ten  lettuce 
plants  and  the  sash  will  then  hold  40  lettuce.  Where  the  frames  are  to  be 
used  for  a  succession  crop  of  lettuce  it  will  not  be  practicable  to  grow  the 
cauliflower  and  they  must  have  room  by  themselves.  But  where  practicable 
it  is  not  best  to  replant  the  same  frame  in  lettuce,  as  the  second  crop  is  apt  to 
be  more  or  less  diseased.  In  fact,  so  much  trouble  has  been  had  from  this, 
that  some  of  the  largest  growers  now  do  not  try  to  have  an  early  winter  crop, 
but  plant  entirely  for  the  late  winter  and  spring  market,  when  the  price  is 
usually  highest.  But  where  practicable  it  will  be  found  best  to  have  extra 
frames  for  second  crop  of  lettuce,  and  to  leave  cauliflower  after  the  Christmas 
lettuce  is  cut,  with  only  protection  of  mats  or  cloth  in  cold  snaps,  and  to  re- 
move the  glass  to  the  extra  frames  for  the  later  lettuce.  These  frames  being 
prepared  at  the  same  time  as  the  first  will  have  gotten  well  sweetened  by  frost, 
and  will  make  the  finest  of  crops.  Seed  for  the  late  winter  and  spring  crop 
is  sown  late  in  September,  in  a  sheltered  spot,  and  a  little  later  it  is  well  to 
miilch  the  plants  lightly  with  strawy  manure  as  a  protection,  though  they  will 
usually  winter  fairly  well  here,  unprotected.  At  the  same  time  it  is  well 
to  sow  some  seed  of  the  varieties  that  are  not  grown  under  protection,  so  as 
to  have  them  to  set  later  in  the  field  along  between  the  rows  of  early  cabbage, 
to  be  cut  in  the  spring  before  the  cabbages  need  all  the  room.  For  this  pur- 
pose there  is  no  better  lettuce  than  the  Improved  Hanson.  For  the  late  win- 
ter and  spring  crop  in  the  frames  we  sow  the  Big  Boston  and  the  California 
Cream  Butter  lettuce.  The  Big  Boston  is  commonly  used  for  both  crops 
by  our  market  gardeners  here,  but  for  the  Christmas  crop  we  prefer  the  Bos- 
ton Market,  as  it  heads  compactly  at  an  earlier  period. 

The  growing  of  lettuce  under  glass  in  the  North  differs  from  that  in 
the  South  only  in  the  place  where  the  plants  are  set.  There  the  crop  is  grown 
in  wide,  flat-roofed  greenhouses,  in  which  a  night  temperature  of  40  to  45 
degi'ees  is  maintained,  and  free  ventilation  given  in  day  time.  The  plants 
are  set  in  well  prepared  compost  on  the  benches  of  the  houses,  and  require 
far  more  care  and  attention  than  the  Southern  frame  crop,  as  the  plants  are 
more  liable  to  disease  and  the  attacks  of  aphides  and  other  insects;  but  the 
crop  is  so  generally  profitable  and  the  quality  so  fine  that  the  area  annually 
devoted  to  lettuce  is  rapidly  increasing.     Near  Boston,  where,  in  winter,  the 


226 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

growers  are  troubled  with  long,  sunless  spells,  it  has  heen  found  profitable 
to  string  arc  lights  over  the  houses  for  forcing  the  crop.  This  is  a  refinement 
in  horticulture  that  few  will  imitate.  .  The  culture  of  frame  lettuce  will  be 
more  fully  treated  in  chapter  on  cold  frames. 

LETTUCE  IN  THE  OPEN  GROUND. 

This  is  the  crop  that  most  farmers  are  more  interested  in  than  the  forced 
crop.  Anywhere  from  Virginia  south  lettuce  plants  can  be  safely  wintered 
over  outside  with  slight  protection  of  manure  in  the  northward  section.  In 
the  North,  however,  it  is  best  to  winter  the  plants  over  in  frames,  as  cal)bage 
plants  are  there  carried  over.  The  market  gardener,  with  his  costly  and 
fertile  land  will  get  the  early  outdoor  crop  from  plants  set  between  the  cab- 
bages, and  will  have  it  out  of  the  way  before  the  cabbages  need  all  the  room. 
Otherwise  the  plants  are  set  as  soon  as  the  ground  can  be  worked  in  the 
spring,  in  well  enriched  soil,  and  make  a  good  crop  to  be  followed  by  some 
tender  plants,  which  cannot  be  set  till  the  ground  is  warm. 

THE  MANURIAL  REQUIREMENTS  OF  LETTUCE. 

Lettuce,  like  most  foliage  crops,  needs  an  abundant  supply  of  nitrogen, 
and  also  in  the  soil  it  prefers,  a  light,  sandy  loam,  a  large  percentage  of  pot- 
ash with  a  fair  proportion  of  phosphoric  acid;  though  this  is  of  less  import- 
ance than  the  first  two.  Occupying  the  soil  during  the  winter  months,  when 
there  is  not  a  great  activity  among  nitrifying  organisms,  it  is  essential  that 
the  fertilizer  be  presented  not  only  in  lavish  amount,  but  in  a  perfectly  solu- 
ble form.  Hence  for  frame  lettuce  we  would  make  a  mixture  of  acid  phos- 
phate, 900  pounds;  dried  blood  or  fish  scrap,  600  pounds;  nitrate  of  soda,  100 
pounds,  and  muriate  of  potash,  400  pounds.  The  large  percentage  of  potash 
renders  it  necessary,  as  we  have  said,  that  the  fertilizer  be  applied  some  time 
before  setting  the  plants,  usually  one  month.  But  the  nitrate  of  soda  should 
])e  reserved  and  not  mixed  with  the  other  ingredients,  but  scattered  between 
the  rows  after  the  plants  begin  to  grow.  The  first  frame  crop  set  in  the 
South  in  October,  will  need  no  protection  till  the  later  part  of  its  growth, 
in  late  November  and  December,  but  the  protection  should  be  at  hand  for 
the  first  cold  snap. 

VARIETIES  OF  LETTUCE. 

The  varieties  used  by  the  growers  of  winter  lettuce  are  few.  The  mar- 
kets of  the  Eastern  States  demand  a  well  headed  lettuce,  while  in  the  West 
the  curled  and  loose  headed  sorts  are  popular.     For  the  fall  crop  we  prefer 


Lettuce — 227 

the  Boston  Market,  since  it  can  be  set  twice  as  thick  as  the  Big  Boston,  but 
for  the  late  winter  and  spring  crop  the  Boston  Market  and  California  Cream 
Butter  lettuce  are  superior,  though  they  require  a  foot  distance  to  the  six  or 
eight  inches  of  the  first  named. 

For  the  open  ground  crop  to  be  set  in  the  fall  in  the  south,  or  in  frames 
for  wintering  over  in  the  North,  there  is  no  lettuce  equal  to  the  Improved 
Hanson.  It  is  the  largest  and  most  solid  heading  of  all  lettuces,  and  can 
easily  be  grown  to  weigh  ten  pounds  or  more  per  head.  For  sowing  in  spring 
the  New  York  and  the  Boston  Fringed  lettuce  stand  the  heat  better  than 
others,  but  any  lettuce  will  soon  run  to  seed  in  warm  weather,  and  late  spring 
and  summer  lettuce  is  milky,  bitter  and  of  little  value  as  compared  with  that 
grown  in  cool  weather.  There  are  long  lists  of  varieties  offered  in  the  seed 
catalogues,  but  many  are  of  little  value  to  the  market  gardener.  The  best  of 
the  loose  heading  sorts  is  the  Grand  Rapids,  which  is  popular  in  the  West, 
but  is  little  grown  in  the  East.  It  makes  very  large  bunches  and  is  of  fine 
quality,  especially  for  decorative  purposes. 

To  persons  of  discriminating  taste  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  Grand 
Rapids  lettuce  is  far  superior  in  quality  to  the  heading  or  cabbage  sorts,  and 
if  once  a  community  is  educated  to  the  using  of  the  curled  sorts  they  will 
sell  in  preference  to  the  cabbage  varieties.  But  at  present  it  will  hardly 
pay  the  gardener  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  country  to  try  to  educate  people 
into  taking  what  they  are  not  accustomed  to.  If  the  crop  is  grown  for  any 
of  the  markets  West,  the  Grand  Rapids  is  the  variety  to  grow,  and  perhaps 
after  a  while  the  Eastern  cities  may  find  out  its  superiority.  In  the  mean- 
time, if  you  are  growing  lettuce  for  home  use,  we  would  advise  the  curled 
sorts  as  of  greatly  superior  quality  and  beauty  to  the  cabbage  lettuces. 


CHAPTEE  XXXIII. 
MELONS. 

MUSKMELONS. 

What  has  heretofore  been  said  in  regard  to  the  manurial  requirements 
of  the  cucumber  will  apply  equally  well  to  the  muskmelon  crop.  This  crop 
prefers  a  soil  of  much  heavier  texture  than  the  watermelon,  and  delights  more 
in  moist  conditions  in  the  soil.  We  plant  muskmelons  in  hills  six  feet  apart, 
and  make  wide  holes  where  each  hill  is  to  be,  using  to  fill  these  holes  a  com- 
post made  of  black  earth  from  the  woods  and  stable  manure  in  equal  parts, 
piled  some  months  before  in  a  flat  heap  and  frequently  turned  until  com- 
pletely well  mixed  and  homogeneous.  Just  before  planting  we  scatter  a  small 
handful  of  any  good  complete  fertilizer  having  a  high  percentage  of  nitrogen 
in  it  over  this,  and  cover  with  soil  before  planting  the  seed.  We  use  an 
abundance  of  seed,  as  it  is  an  important  matter  to  get  a  complete  stand  at 
once.  As  soon  as  the  plants  can  be  seen  breaking  through  the  soil  we  dust 
them  over  with  fine  raw  bone  dust,  to  keep  off  the  striped  beetles  that  prey 
upon  them;  the  bone  dust  is  also  a  good  fertilizer.  When  the  rough  leaves 
develop  and  danger  from  the  bugs  is  past,  we  thin  to  two  good  plants  in  a 
hill,  and  cultivate  flat  and  shallow  with  a  cultivator  till  the  vines  get  in  the 
way,  after  which  weeds  are  pulled  from  among  them  by  hand.  Some  large 
market  gardeners  adopt  a  different  plan  and  use  commercial  fertilizers  entire- 
ly. They  plant  the  melons  between  the  rows  of  the  early  peas,  running  a  fur- 
row down  the  middles,  and  applying  a  good  dressing  of  high  grade  nitroge- 
nous fertilizer  all  along  the  furrow.  Two  furrows  are  lapped  on  the  first  one, 
making  a  slight  ridge,  which  is  flattened  down  and  a  shallow  furrow,  in 
which  the  seeds  are  scattered,  is  made  on  the  flattened  ridge.  As  they  de- 
velop they  are  thinned  to  stand  about  two  feet  apart  in  the  rows,  and  when  the 
peas  are  off  the  vines  are  turned  under  and  the  melons  cultivated.  They 
are  also  planted  between  the  rows  of  early  snap  beans  and  treated  in  a  similar 
way.  The  variety  mainly  grown  by  the  Southern  truck  growers  is  the  small 
early  sort  known  as  Jenny  Lind.  This  is  early  and  of  a  size  easily  packed  in 
crates  for  shipment,  and  is  more  largely  grown  here  than  any  other.       Of 

(228) 


Melons — 229 

late  years  there  has  been  a  great  deal  of  interest  in  a  variety  known  as  the 
Eocky  Ford,  from  the  locality  in  Colorado  where  it  has  been  largely  produced 
and  shipped  East.  The  high  quality  of  the  Rocky  Ford  melons  caused  them 
to  bring  fancy  prices  in  the  East,  and  many  have  tried  the  variety  here.  But 
it  has  been  found  that  the  Rock  Ford  is  the  same  variety  that  has  been 
long  grown  under  the  name  of  Netted  Gem,  and  that  it  seems  to  be  the  soil 
and  climate  at  Rocky  Ford  that  has  given  them  their  fine  quality.  Why  the 
difference  should  exist  between  the  Netted  Gem  in  one  section  or  another  re- 
mains to  be  determined,  and  several  of  the  Experiment  Stations  are  entering 
into  the  investigation  of  the  effect  of  soil  and  climate  on  this  variety.  In 
Europe  there  are  a  number  of  varieties  of  winter  muskmelons  grown.  These 
mature  late  in  the  season,  can  be  put  away  to  ripen  indoors  and  will  keep 
till  Christmas.  For  some  reason  these  melons  have  never  become  popular 
in  this  country,  but  experiments  are  now  being  made  with  them,  and  it  may 
be  that  there  will  be  found  some  that  suit  our  climate. 

For  a  home  mixture  for  muskmelons  we  would  suggest  the  following: 
Acid  phosphate,  900  pounds ;  dried  blood,  600  pounds ;  nitrate  of  soda,  100 
pounds,  and  sulphate  of  potash,  400  pounds,  to  make  a  ton.  Where  the  con- 
centrated fertilizer  is  used  exclusively  we  would  use  500  pounds  per  acre. 
As  a  dressing  on  hills  of  compost  half  this  quantity  will  be  sufficient.  At  the 
last  working  of  the  crop  it  is  a  good  practice  to  sow  cow  peas  among  the  rows, 
as  they  quickly  grow  up  and  make  some  shade  from  the  sun,  and  after  the 
crop  is  off  there  will  be  a  field  of  peas  to  turn  into  forage. 

WATERMELONS. 

The  watermelon  is  very  similar  in  its  manurial  requirements  to  the 
muskmelon,  but  if  grown  in  well  manured  or  fertilized  hills  it  can  be  profit- 
ably grown  on  poor,  sandy  land  that  would  not  make  a  good  crop  of  musk- 
melons. The  same  making  of  a  rich  bed  of  compost  in  the  hills  is  practiced 
with  the  watermelon,  but  the  hills  are  much  further  apart  than  those  of  the 
muskmelon.  Ten  by  twelve  feet  is  a  good  average  distance  to  plant,  and  the 
sowing  of  peas  between  the  rows  is  of  more  importance  here  than  with  the 
muskmelon,  as  the  watermelon  likes  to  hide  in  the  shade  and  is  damaged  by 
the  hot  sun.  The  crop,  like  the  muskmelon  crop,  can  be  grown  with  com- 
mercial fertilizers  alone.  One  of  the  best  watermelon  crops  we  ever  grew 
was  on  a  sandy  piece  of  bottom  land  where  the  soil  was  deep  and  moisture 
always  in  reach.  This  land  was  plowed  in  twelve  foot  lands  early  in  the 
spring  and  the  dead  furrows  well  plowed  out.  A  heavy  dressing  of  the  fer- 
tilizer given  above  was  then  scattered  along  the  dead  furrows.     Two  furrows 


230 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

were  lapped  on  this,  making  a  sharp  ridge  in  the  dead  furrow.  This  ridge 
was  flattened  slightly  and  a  shallow  furrow  made  on  it  in  which  the  seeds  were 
sown.  The  crest  of  this  bed  was  then  quite  below  the  level  of  the  top  of  the 
intervening  lands.  As  the  seeds  appeared  to  germinate  the  bone  dust  was  ap- 
plied and  when  washed  off  by  rain,  renewed.  As  the  plants  developed  they 
were  thinned  to  three  feet  apart  and  but  one  plant  left  in  a  place.  The  first 
working  was  to  throw  furrows  to  the  row  from  each  side,  and  this  process 
was  continued  until,  when  the  cultivation  was  done,  the  rows  of  plants  stood 
on  top  the  lands  and  the  dead  furrows  were  between  them.  In  this  way  the 
roots  were  gotten  down  into  the  moist  lower  soil,  and  flourished  as  T  have 
never  seen  them  since;  and  the  crop  was  as  fine  as  ever  seen.  About  700 
pounds  per  acre  of  the  fertilizer  was  used.  This  amount  could  not  have 
safely  been  applied  to  sandy  land  at  a  greater  elevation  or  on  a  dry  hill,  but 
on  this  soil,  where  moisture  was  always  in  reach,  the  fertilizer  was  completely 
dissolved  and  used  by  the  crop.  There  are  so  many  varieties  of  watermelons 
grown  that  it  is  hard  to  recommend  the  best.  For  growing  for  market  and 
for  long  shipping,  there  is  no  variety  equal  to  the  round  Kolb  Gem.  This 
is  of  fair  quality  and  good  appearance  when  cut,  and  has  a  tough  rind  that 
bears  handling.  But  for  home  use  and  a  near  market  it  is  far  inferior  to 
many  others.  Like  a  great  many  other  things,  the  variety  best  adapted  to 
shipping  purposes  is  not  of  the  best  quality.  In  our  experience  we  have 
found  no  watermelon  that  can  equal  in  quality  the  Mclver  Sugar  melon.  It 
grows  to  a  large  size,  has  a  thin  rind  and  beautiful  scarlet  flesh,  which  never 
cracks  in  wet  \feather,  as  most  other  varieties  are  apt  to  do,  and  in  quality  it 
leaves  nothing  to  be  desired.  Next  to  the  Mclver  we  would  place  the  Jones, 
a  very  large,  dark  green  melon  of  a  round  shape.  It  is  a  very  productive 
sort  and  will  make  melons  from  50  to  70  pounds  weight,  or  even  more.  With 
these  varieties  we  do  not  think  either  the  market  grower  or  the  home  gar- 
dener need  look  further,  for  they  combine  all  that  is  needed  in  a  watermelon. 


CHAPTER  XXXIV. 

ONIONS. 

There  is  hardly  any  culinary  vegetable  more  largely  grown 
North  and  South  than  the  onion,  and  there  is  no  crop  to  the 
perfection  of  which  the  commercial  fertilizers  are  better  fitted,  be- 
cause of  the  tendency  of  stable  manure  to  introduce  weed*  seeds, 
and  there  is  no  crop  that  must  be  kept  more  clear  of  weeds 
than  the  onion.  "Clean  as  an  onion  bed,"  has  grown  into  a  maxim 
in  culture.  Our  market  gardeners  grow  onions  very  largely  for  bunching 
while  green  in  the  early  spring,  the  main  crop  of  onions  ripened  and  sold  in 
barrels  are  grown  on  lands  especially  adapted  to  the  crop,  and  by  farmers 
rather  than  gardeners.  The  methods  for  producing  the  crop  are  as  various 
as  the  purposes  for  which  it  is  grown.  In  Bermuda,  and  to  some  extent  in 
Florida,  the  so-called  Bermuda  onion  is  grown  by  sowing  the  seed  in  the  fall 
for  the  winter  crop.  Onions  prefer  a  cool  climate  and  a  moist  soil,  and  when 
grown  in  the  South,  they  must  be  given  the  most  favorable  season  in  which 
to  grow.  Anywhere  south  of  Virginia  it  would  be  perfectly  feasible  to  sow 
onion  seed  in  September  for  the  early  green  crop  in  the  spring.  But  we  have 
found  that  our  September  weather  is  so  uniformly  dry  that  at  that  time 
getting  a  stand  of  onions  from  seed  is  very  uncertain.  Hence  for  this  green 
crop  we  are  compelled  to  resort  to  the  use  of  sets. 

GROWING  THE  SETS. 

We  use  seed  of  the  Queen  onion  for  the  growing  Oi  sets,  since  they  are 
only  used  in  the  production  of  the  green  bunching  crop,  and  we  want  a  quick 
growing  onion  rather  than  a  large  one.  Growers  in  the  South,  and  even  in 
the  Middle  States,  have  gotten  so  much  in  the  habit  of  grow- 
ing their  onions  entirely  from  sets,  that  growers  in  many  section 
in     the     Northern     States,     make     the     growing     of     sets     an     import- 

(231) 


232 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

ant  crop,  and  we  find  on  the  market  sets  of  all  kinds,  white, 
yellow  and  red.  But  the  Southern  grower  is  fast  finding  that  he  does 
not  need  sets,  except  for  the  production  of  the  spring  bunching  crop,  and  for 
this  purpose  he  wants  a  white  set.  After  a  number  of  experiments  we  have 
found  that  the  Queen  gives  us  the  best  results  for  this  purpose. 

Since  onion  sets  should  be  of  small  size,  the  thicker  the  seeds  are  sown 
the  better.  It  is  our  practice  here  to  sow  seeds  for  sets  the  first  of  April,  in 
rows,  and  so  thickly  that  it  will  take  about  60  pounds  to  sow  an  acre.  Sown 
in  this  way  they  crowd  each  other  and  the  product  is  a  mass  of  bulbs  about  the 
size  of  small  marbles,  ripe  here  in  early  July.  These  are  gathered  and  cured 
with  the  tops  left  on,  for  we  find  that  they  soon  start  to  sprout  when  the  tops 
are  removed.  Hence  the  tops  are  not  taken  off  till  we  are  ready  to  use  or  sell 
the  sets.  These  sets  are  planted  in  September,  as  it  is  important  that  they 
get  well  started  and  a  young  bulb  under  way  before  cold  weaihex. 

EARLY  green  ONIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

We  have  long  since  found  that  while  we  can  grow  as  fine  onions  from  the 
black  seed  in  the  South  the  first  season  as  can  be  grown  elsewhere,  and  that 
for  the  purpose  of  growing  a  ripened  crop  the  sets  are  practically  worthless, 
we  are  compelled  by  the  character  of  our  autumn  weather  to  use  the  sets  for 
the  early  crop,  which  goes  Xorth  late  in  winter  and  early  in  spring.  The 
onion  is  one  of  the  few  crops  which  are  better  fertilized  in  the  hill  than  broad- 
cast, since  the  roots  have  a  more  limited  range  and  are  better  nourished  by 
having  the  fertilizer  placed  right  below  them.  Therefore  for  this  early  crop 
we  mark  out  furrows,  early  in  September,  two  feet  apart.  In  these  furrows 
we  scatter  the  fertilizer  and  then  bed  on  the  first  furrow  with  two  others,  one 
from  each  side,  making  a  ridge  over  the  fertilizer.  This  we  fiatten  with  a 
hand  roller,  and  mark  out  a  small  furrow  on  the  bed  in  which  the  sets  are 
placed  so  that  when  the  soil  is  pulled  away  in  late  winter  the  bulbs  will  be 
on  the  surface.  We  set  them  rather  deep  in  the  bed  as  a  protection  till  hard 
frosts  are  over.  As  the  crop  is  pulled  and  bunched  when  half  grown,  the  sets 
can  be  placed  two  inches  apart  in  the  rows.  We  have  said  that  for  this  early 
crop  we  use  sets  of  the  Queen  onion.  We  have  succeeded  very  well  with  the 
Bermuda  onion  in  the  same  way,  and  the  white  potato  onion,  or  Multiplier, 
is  being  largely  used  for  fall  planting,  as  it  stands  the  winter  better  than 
most  other  sorts  and  makes  a  short  top.  The  fertilizer  requirements  of 
onions  are  mainly  for  nitrogen  and  potash.  Analysis  shows  a  very  small 
percentage  of  phosphoric  acid  in  the  onion  when  compared  with  the  other 
constituents. 


Onions— 233 

Another  way  to  produce  the  early  onion  crop  in  the  South  is  to  sow  the 
seed  rather  thickly  in  August  on  land  that  is  naturally  mellow  and  moist, 
and  which  is  heavily  fertilized  with  a  fertilizer  mixture  containing  a  large 
percentage  of  potash,  the  formula  for  which  is  given  under  the  proper  head. 
This  crop  should  be  well  cultivated  through  the  fall,  and  it  will  be  found  that 
if  the  fall  weather  is  favorable  some  of  the  onions  will  grow  to  quite  a  size, 
and  these  it  is  best  to  thin  out  and  use  for  pickling  onions.  Hence  the 
reason  for  rather  thick  sowing.  As  cold  weather  comes  on  the  earth  is  drawn 
to  each  side  the  rows  as  a  winter  protection  and  to  be  removed  as  the  weather 
warms  in  early  March,  to  give  the  onions  a  chance  to  bulb  on  the  surface.  In 
cold  latitudes  the  cold  frame  can  be  utilized  for  the  fall  onion  crop. 


THE  GENERAL  CROP  OF  ONIONS. 

I 

When  it  comes  to  the  growing  of  ripe  onions  for  keeping  and  shipping 
there  is  no  need  for  sets  either  North  or  South.  It  is  simply  a  matter  of 
earlier  sowing  and  earlier  ripening  in  the  South.  The  onion  prefers  a  moist 
soil  abounding  in  humus,  so  that  it  can  have  uniformity  of  moisture  during 
its  growth.  Hence  reclaimed  swamp  lands  are  well  suited  to  the  crop  and 
in  many  sections  such  reclaimed  areas  are  being  very  largely  devoted  to  the 
onion  crop.  At  the  same  time,  such  soils  are  apt  to  be  particularly  deficient 
in  the  potash  so  essential  to  a  good  onion  crop,  and  while  the  soil  is  apparent- 
ly very  rich,  the  onion  crop  would  fail  to  bulb  well.  It  will  not  do  to  assume 
that  any  soil  is  rich  enough  to  grow  onions  without  any  fertilizer.  With  a 
crop  that  varies  so  largely  in  quantity  all  the  way  from  a  few  bushels  per 
acre  to  over  a  thousand  bushels,  it  is  evident  that  the  presence  of  a  lavish 
supply  of  plant  food  in  a  readily  available  form  is  essential  to  the  produc- 
tion of  onions.  A  buried  clover  sod  or  a  pea  fallow  in  the  South  are  favor- 
able places  for  the  onion  crop,  if  the  soil  is  of  the  right  mechanical  make 
up.  A  mellow  loam  inclining  rather  to  sand  than  clay  is  the  best  for  the 
onion  crop.  The  fertilizer  is  applied  in  the  same  way  as  advised  for  the  fall 
planting  of  sets  in  the  South.  The  beds  are  rolled  nearly  flat,  but  we  find 
that  it  is  a  great  advantage  to  have  the  seed  drilled  a  little  above  the  general 
level,  and  in  all  garden  crops  that  are  grown  from  seed  direct,  we  always  make 
these  beds  rather  than  drill  on  the  flat  surface.  It  is  easy  then  to  start  the 
horse  cultivation  at  once,  and  while  the  use  of  hand  cultivators  may  be  eco- 
nomical on  small  areas  or  high  priced  land  we  have  always  found  it  more 
economical  to  fertilize  in  the  furrow,  and  to  work  the  crop  as  far  as  possible 
with  the  weeder  and  cultivator,  the  latter,  a  small  tooth  many  toothed  imple- 


234 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

ment,  throwing  hardly  any  furrow,  but  working  the  surface  clean  and  fine. 
The  seed  is  drilled  as  early  as  the  land  can  be  gotten  in  good  condition  in 
the  spring,  here  during  the  latter  part  of  February,  and  later  with  the  advanc- 
ing season,  northward.  The  success  of  the  crop  depends  on  its  having  the 
longest  part  of  the  cool  spring  season  for  its  growth.  As  in  the  case  with 
sets,  we  have  found  that  onions  keep  much  better  by  being  cured  with  the  tops 
left  on  and  stored  in  this  way.  We  try  to  get  them  cured  as  rapidly  as  pos- 
sible, but  not  too  much  in  the  hot  sunshine,  and  above  all  things  take  care 
that  rain  does  not  fall  on  them  before  being  stored.  We  place  them  in  flats 
in  the  hottest  place  we  have  under  cover,  up  near  the  barn  roof,  and  when 
well  cured  store  them  in  a  cooler  place.  If  spread  out  thinly  and  not  dis- 
turbed while  frozen  a  little  freezing  will  not  do  any  harm,  but  we  prefer  to 
keep  them  just  above  the  freezing  point. 

'  varieties  for  keeping. 

We  have  tested  a  great  many  varieties  of  onions  and  while  almost  any  of 
the  sorts  commonly  grown  in  the  North  will  keep  very  well,  we  have  found  that 
the  best  keepers  to  grow  here  in  the  South  are  the  Southport  White  Globe 
and  the  New  Opal.  This  last  is  a  yellowish  red  onion  introduced  to  our 
notice  by  Messrs.  George  Tait  &  Son,  of  Norfolk,  Va.,  and  it  is  the  best  keep- 
er out  of  16  varieties  tried  at  the  same  time.  Any  of  the  Italian  onions  will 
make  large  crops  from  the  black  seed,  but  as  a  rule  they  are  poor  keepers. 
Their  earliness  makes  them  desirable  in  the  South  as  they  can  be  sent  to  mar- 
ket before  the  Northern  crop  comes  in.  The  same  may  be  said  of  the  Potato 
onion  grown  from  fall  planted  sets.  These,  when  allowed  to  ripen,  are  ready 
for  sale  earlier  than  any  other  ripe  onions  and  usually  bring  good  prices. 
But  they  must  be  disposed  of  at  once  as  soon  as  ripe,  as  they  will  not  keep 
long  unsprouted. 

another  method  of  grov^ting  onions. 

Of  late  years  a  new  plan  has  been  proposed  for  the  growing  of  early 
and  large  onions.  This  is  by  sowing  the  seed  under  glass  and  transplanting 
the  young  onions  to  their  permanent  quarters  as  soon  as  the  weather  will 
permit.  We  tried  this  method  of  culture  with  a  large  number  of  varieties, 
and  have  found  that  with  the  Bermuda,  Spanish  and  Italian  onions  the 
method  is  a  good  one,  but  that  it  is  of  no  advantage  with  the  sorts  commonly 
grown  from  seed  by  the  large  onion  growers  in  the  North.  We  have  found 
it  a  very  good  plan  with  the  Bermuda  onions  in  this  climate  to  sow  the  seeds 


Onions — 235 

in  a  cold  frame  in  January  (a  greenhouse  would  be  the  place  in  the  North), 
and  to  transplant  the  young  onions  when  the  size  of  a  goose  quill,  to  the  rows 
prepared  for  them  outside.  The  variety  best  adapted  to  this  method  is  the 
large,  yellow  onion  known  as  the  Prizetaker.  This  can  be  grown  to  a  very 
large  size  by  this  method,  much  larger  than  by  sowing  the  seed  in  the  open 
ground  without  transplanting.  We  have  also  had  fair  success  with  some  of 
the  Italian  sorts  by  merely  transplanting  the  thinnings  of  the  rows  that  were 
sown  in  the  open  ground.  Sowing  under  glass  and  transplanting  is  also  a 
good  method  of  getting  the  Bermuda  onions  early  in  the  season.  In  the  far 
South  some  advise  the  sowing  of  Bermuda  onions  late  in  fall  and  transplant- 
ing them  for  the  early  crop.  This  may  be  successful  in  Florida  if  the  sowing 
i?  done  not  earlier  than  late  December.  If  sown  earlier  we  have  had  reports 
that  the  onions  seem  to  stop  growing  as  the  milder  weather  of  spring  comes 
on,  and  do  not  attain  a  good  size.  This  is  at  least  the  report  of  a  good 
grower  there. 

FERTILIZERS  tR'OR  THE  ONION  CROP. 

We  make  only  one  difference  in  the  fertilization  of  the  fall  planted 
sets  and  the  early  spring  crop,  and  this  is  that  we  use  no  nitrate  of  soda  with 
the  fall  planted  crop.  Analysis  of  the  crop  shows  that  the  demand  of  the 
onion  as  food  is  mainly  for  nitrogen  and  potash,  and  that  phosphoric  acid 
forms  a  very  small  part  of  what  the  onion  removes  from  the  soil.  Hence 
the  fertilizer  for  the  onion  crop  should  be  rich  mainly  in  nitrogen  and  potash, 
though  the  latter  needs  for  its  best  effects  that  there  be  present  a  fair  percent- 
age of  phosphoric  acid.  For  the  fall  crop  we  would  use  the  following  mix- 
ture: Acid  phosphate,  800  pounds;  fish  scrap,  dried  blood  or  cotton  seed  meal 
800  pounds ;  muriate  of  potash,  400  pounds,  to  make  a  ton. 

To  the  spring  sown  crop  we  would  add  a  dressing  of  50  pounds  per  acre 
of  nitrate  of  soda  as  the  plants  start  into  vigorous  growth.  With  the  heavy 
application  of  not  less  than  half  a  ton  in  the  rows  (and  one  and  a  half  tons 
are  profitably  used  broadcast  when  planted  for  hand  culture)  it  is  important 
that  the  fertilizer  be  placed  in  the  rows  and  covered  a  week  or  more  before  the 
beds  are  rolled  down  and  sown,  as  the  large  percentage  of  potash,  while  in  a 
caustic  condition,  may  have  an  injurious  effect  on  the  roots. 

The  onion  is  one  of  the  crops  that  seems  to  prefer  to  be  kept  annually  on 
the  same  land,  provided  the  heavy  applications  of  plant  food  are  continued 
annually.  The  clean  culture  required  gets  the  land  clear  of  weed  seeds.  But  as 
the  crop  is  off  early  in  the  season,  some  soil  cover  crop,  such  as  the  Southern 
cow  pea  or  crimson  clover,  should  be  sown  on  the  land  to  keep  up  the  humus 


236 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

content  and  to  prevent  the  loss  of  fertility.  Where  the  crimson  clover  will 
succeed  this  is  by  far  the  best,  as  it  grows  during  the  winter.  If  cow  peas  are 
used,  the  land  should  be  sown  in  rye  as  a  winter  cover  after  the  peas  are  dead. 
Treated  in  this  way,  the  onion  crop  can  be  profitably  grown  on  the  same 
ground  annually  with  increasing  yield. 

Six  pounds  of  seed  per  acre  are  sown  when  the  crop  is  in  close  rows  for 
hand  tools,  but  half  that  quantity  will  be  an  abundance  when  sown  for  horse 
culture.  The  sowing  may  be  done  in  the  North  as  late  as  the  first  of  May, 
but  from  Virginia  southward  the  crop  will  fail  if  sown  later  than  March. 


CHAPTER  XXXV. 

ENGLISH,  OR  GARDEN,  PEAS. 

These  belong  to  the  great  family  of  legumes,  of  which  we  have  already 
said  so  much.  If  sown  on  land  that  was  manured  the  year  before  for  garden 
crops  there  will  be  no  need  for  any  fertilization  of  the  pea  crop,  but  on  most 
lands  in  the  Southern  market  gardening  section  a  light  dressing  of  acid  phos- 
phate will  be  an  advantage.  In  the  Southern  trucking  section  the  marrowfat 
peas  are  sown  in  November,  and  needing  some  support  it  is  a  common  prac- 
tice to  sow  them  alongside  the  rows  of  the  dead  cotton  plants.  These  late 
peas  are  thus  given  a  longer  season  to  mature,  as  the  extra  early  peas,  which 
go  to  market  first,  are  not  sown  till  January  and  February.  As  to  varieties, 
every  seedsman  has  his  special  strain  of  the  extra  early  peas,  which  are  all 
really  the  same  pea,  the  Daniel  O'Rourks,  which  have  been  better  rogued 
with  than  some  others,  perhaps,  but  all  try  to  keep  their  special  variety  as 
pure  and  uniform  as  possible.  Private  gardeners  with  limited  space,  provide 
something  for  the  peas  to  climb  on,  but  the  market  gardener  cannot  afford 
this,  and  lets  them  tumble  on  the  ground.  In  my  home  garden  I  use  the 
narrow  poultry  wire,  woven  in  large  meshes,  and  find  that  this  is  not  only  the 
best  but  the  cheapest  way  of  supporting,  not  only  the  garden  peas,  but  the 
lima  and  other  climbing  beans.  I  have  in  use  now,  wire  netting  that  has 
been  used  for  this  purpose  annually  for  ten  years  and  it  loooks  as  though  it 
may  last  twenty  years  longer,  and  even  in  its  first  cost  it  is  cheaper  than  the 
time  of  men  and  teams  to  go  into  one's  own  forest  and  cut  brush.  The  little 
extra  early  peas  are  valuable  for  the  market  gardener,  but  while  the  fact  that 
they  give  their  whole  crop  at  once  is  a  valuable  feature  to  him,  it  is  not  to  the 
private  gardener,  who  wants  peas  that  last  longer  and  are  of  better  quality. 
For  home  use  we  never  plant. any  of  the  extra  earlies,  but  are  content  to  begin 
with  the  Premium  Gem,  which  is  of  better  quality  and  lasts  longer.  We 
follow  these  with  the  Yorkshire  Hero,  Stratagem,  and  the  Champion  of 
England. 

(237) 


CHAPTER  XXXYL 

IRI8H  POTATOES. 

There  is  no  crop  grown  by  the  farmer  and  gardener  alike  that  is  of  more 
importance  in  all  parts  of  the  country  than  the  potato  crop.  The  farmer 
in  the  North  makes  it  at  times  his  main  money  crop,  and  the  Southern  mar- 
ket gardener  finds  it  one  of  his  great  staples  for  shipment  to  the  North  in 
spring.  Its  manurial  requirements  therefore  are  of  the  greatest  importance 
in  all  parts  of  the  country.  No  crop  has  had  its  needs  more  studied  at  the 
Experiment  Stations  than  the  potato  crop.  Its  peculiar  liability  to  the  at- 
tacks of  fungus  diseases  and  insects,  has  led  to  a  great  deal  of  study  for  pro- 
viding the  farmer  with  the  means  for  combatting  these  troubles,  and  the 
result  of  these  investigations  has  been  to  develop  methods  for  caring  for  the 
health  of  the  crop  which  are  practical  and  profitable. 

SOILS  FOR  THE  POTATO  CROP. 

A  mellow  loam  between  a  sandy  and  a  clayey  loam  is  doubtless  the  soil 
for  the  best  success  of  the  potato.  It  is  important,  too,  that  the  soil  be  well 
stocked  with  decaying  organic  matter,  and  that  it  be  rather  in  an  acid  than 
an  alkaline  condition;  since  it  has  been  found  that  the  fungus  that  causes 
the  scabby  appearance  of  the  outside  of  the  potato  and  thus  decreases  its 
marketable  value,  will  not  thrive  in  acid  conditions,  and  that  while  the  ap- 
plication of  lime  to  such  a  soil  may  cause  an  increase  in  the  bulk  of  the  crop, 
the  sweetening  of  the  soil  will  encourage  the  scab  fungus  and  injure  its  mar- 
ket value.  Hard-wood  ashes,  having  a  large  percentage  of  lime,  will  have  a 
similar  effect,  and  growers  are  rapidly  learning  that  stable  manure  has  the 
same  effect,  hence  all  large  growers  now  confine  the  manuring  of  the  potato 
crop  to  the  artificial  fertilizers.  There  is  no  crop  grown  for  which  the  humus 
content  in  the  soil  is  of  more  importance ;  hence  it  is  found  that  newly  cleared 
land  will  give  fine  crops,  and  that  on  our  old  lands  the  best  preparation  of  the 

(238) 


Irish  Potatoes — 239 

land  for  potatoes  is  to  have  legumes  precede  them.  In  the  South  this  can 
be  the  cow  pea  the  preceding  summer  and  the  hairy  vetch  in  winter,  the  latter 
to  be  plowed  under  for  the  potatoes. 

MANURIAL  REQUIREMENTS  OF  THE  POTATO. 

Analysis  shows  that  the  Irish  potato  consists  of  79.75  per  cent,  of  water, 
0.99  per  cent,  of  ash  or  mineral  matter,  and  it  contains  0.21  per  cent,  of 
nitrogen,  0.07  per  cent,  of  phosphoric  acid  and  0.29  per  cent,  of  potash. 
Hence  it  is  easy  to  see  that  nitrogen  and  especially  potash  play  the  most  im- 
portant part  in  its  growth.  Where  the  crop  is  planted  on  a  soil  abounding 
in  organic  matter  or  humus,  there  will  be  little  need  for  an  artificial  appli- 
cation of  nitrogen,  in  the  northern  part  of  the  country,  where  the  potato 
grows  during  the  greater  part  of  the  season  when  the  nitrification  of  this 
organic  matter  is  most  active. 

But  in  the  South,  where  the  crop  is  grown  in  the  spring  months  and 
earliness  is  the  great  point  to  attain,  a  more  liberal  application  of  immediate- 
ly available  nitrogen  is  important.  In  fact,  the  potato  in  the  South  is  a  mar- 
ket garden  crop  rather  than  a  farm  crop,  as  it  is  in  the  North,  and  as  the 
value  of  this  early  crop  is  greater  than  that  grown  in  the  North,  it  will  pay 
for  more  liberal  fertilization  than  the  farmer  in  the  North  usually  gives. 
Any  fertilizer  mixture  for  the  potato.  North  or  South,  must  be  high  in  its 
potash  content,  while  but  a  moderate  percentage  of  phosphoric  acid  is  needed. 
The  manufacturers  make  a  great  many  names  for  their  fertilizers  and  nearly 
every  one  of  them  has  a  special  potato  fertilizer,  and  nearly  every  one  of  them 
makes  the  phosphoric  acid  the  leading  constituent.  In  fact,  if  the  farmer 
will  take  the  trouble  to  examine  the  tables  of  analyses  of  commercial  fertil- 
izers published  by  the  various  Experiment  Stations,  he  will  find  that  many 
of  the  so-called  special  fertilizers  recommended  for  different  crops  are  really 
the  same  thing,  and  are  probably  bagged  out  of  the  same  pile,  and  the  only 
difference  between  them  is  that  one  is  called  "special  potato  manure"  and 
another  is  "special  manure  for  cabbage,''  or  some  other  crop.  When  farmers 
learn  to  buy  fertilizers  by  the  analysis  and  not  by  the  trade  brand,  or,  better 
still,  learn  that  they  can  mix  their  own  fertilizers  better  and  cheaper  than 
they  can  buy  them,  this  humbug  will  have  had  its  day. 

OTATOES  AS  A  FIELD  CROP  IN  THE  NORTH. 

Where  the  potato  crop  is  one  of  the  regular  crops  in  an  improving  rota- 
tion the  rule  that  the  application  of  commercial  fertilizers  should  be  to  the 


240 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

legume  crop  rather  than  the  sale  crop  should  prevail.  With  a  proper  rota- 
tion in  which  clover  is  brought  in  frequently  on  the  land,  and  the  home-made 
manures  are  used  on  the  corn  crop,  there  will  be  a  rapid  increase  in  the  humus 
content  in  the  soil,  and  there  will  be  no  need  for  the  purchase  of  any  nitro- 
gen for  the  potato  crop.  For  instance,  suppose  that  the  rotation  is  corn  and 
potatoes  in  same  field,  wheat  after  both,  with  clover  sown  on  the  wheat.  One 
year  with  clover  and  then  the  part  that  was  in  corn  the  previous  round  is  put 
in  potatoes,  and  the  part  that  was  in  potatoes  goes  in  corn.  Each  have  part 
of  the  clover  sod,  but  the  corn  is  to  get  all  the  home-made  manure,  while  the 
potatoes  are  to  have  the  artificial  fertilizers,  if  any  are  needed.  We  say,  if 
any  are  needed,  for  we  believe  that  it  will  be  found  most  profitable  to  give  the 
clover  the  acid  phosphate  and  potash  it  needs,  and  to  depend  on  the  clover 
for  the  potatoes.  Corn,  as  we  have  seen,  also  needs  a  good  percentage  of  pot- 
ash and  nitrogen.  But  we  have  also  seen  that  corn,  as  a  field  crop,  never  pays 
the  cost  of  purchased  nitrogen,  and  I  doubt  if  the  potatoes  will.  But  when 
the  clover  the  preceding  year  gets  a  liberal  dressing  of  acid  phosphate  and 
potash,  it  not  only  gives  a  heavier  crop  of  forage,  but  makes  the  farm  manure 
richer  in  these  things,  and  there  will  usually  be  no  need  for  the  purchase 
of  fertilizers  for  the  potato  or  the  corn  crop.  We  would  alternate  the  pota- 
toes and  corn  every  three  years,  so  that  all  the  land  will  get,  during  the  rota- 
tion, a  dressing  of  the  home-made  manure;  and  as  this  is  detrimental  to  the 
health  of  the  potato  crop  if  applied  directly,  it  is  not  so  when  it  has  become 
assimilated  to  the  soil,  and  is  simply  organic  matter  like  the  clover  that  is 
decaying  around  them.  In  the  beginning  of  the  improvement  of  a  worn 
soil  it  may  be  profitable  to  use  some  phosphoric  acid  and  potash  on  the  pota- 
toes, but  if  the  proposed  rotation  is  carried  out  we  believe  that  the  fertiliza- 
tion of  the  clover  will  be  the  better  way  to  fertilize  the  potato  crop. 

In  this  case  there  is  no  better  application  to  the  clover  than  400  pounds 
per  acre  of  a  mixture  of  equal  parts  of  acid  phosphate  and  kainit.  For  the 
direct  fertilization  of  the  potato  crop  in  the  North,  where  the  crop  follows 
clover,  we  would  advise  the  mixture  of  1,600  pounds  of  acid  phosphate  and 
400  pounds  of  high  grade  sulphate  of  potash  to  make  a  ton,  and  would  use 
500  pounds  of  the  mixture  per  acre;  and  put  it  all  in  the  furrow  under  the 
potatoes,  since  the  potato  plant  does  not  spread  its  roots  far.  The  potato 
crop  in  the  Xorth  depends  to  a  great  extent  for  its  quality  and  starchiness 
on  the  form  in  which  the  large  percentage  of  potash  is  given  it.  Muriate 
of  potash  is  cheaper  than  the  sulphate,  and  will  make  the  larger  increase  in 
the  crop.  But  the  quality  will  be  inferior  to  that  of  the  crop  on  which  the 
sulphate  is  used,  as  the  chlorides  seem  to  have  a  tendency  to  make  the  potato 
more  clammy. 


Irish  Potatoes — 241 
cultivation. 

It  is  not  necessary  in  a  work  that  deals  mainly  with  the  manurial  re- 
quirements of  crops  to  go  at  length  into  the  familiar  culture  of  the  potato. 
Methods  of  culture  will  differ  with  the  soil  and  climate,  and  a  method  per- 
fectly correct  under  one  set  of  conditions,  will  be  found  wanting  in  some 
respect  under  different  conditions  of  soil  and  climate.  In  the  conditions 
present  on  most  farms  north  of  the  Ohio  and  Potomac,  and  in  the  mountain 
regions  of  the  South  where  similar  climatic  conditions  prevail,  we  would  al- 
ways practice  rather  deep  planting  and  very  shallow  and  constant  cultivation ; 
never,  in  fact,  "laying  by"  the  crop  till  it  is  made.  Assuming  that  farmers 
everywhere  have  abandoned  the  old  plan  of  planting  in  hills,  we  would  plant 
the  sets  fifteen  inches  apart  in  the  furrow.  Whether  large  or  small  potatoes 
are  used  as  seed  should  depend  not  merely  on  the  size  of  the  tuber,  but  on  the 
conditions  under  which  it  was  produced. 

The  potato  is  merely  a  bunch  of  stems  under  ground,  surrounded  by  a 
mass  of  starchy  matter,  and  the  eyes  are  the  terminal  buds  of  the  branches. 
Now  if  these  tubers  have  been  produced  under  conditions  that  did  not  favor 
the  increase  of  the  mass  of  starchy  matter,  and  the  small  tubers  are  the  best 
of  the  crop,  they  will  make  good  seed.  But  if  the  small  tubers  are  merely 
the  immature  little  ones  from  a  crop  where  there  were  very  large  and  fine  pota- 
toes, they  are  small  from  lack  of  vigor  in  that  particular  branch  and  will  in- 
herit weakness  of  growth.  But  in  selecting  seed  potatoes  in  the  field  I 
would  rather  take  the  small  potatoes  from  a  hill  that  made  a  great  many 
than  the  large  potatoes  from  a  hill  that  made  but  two  or  three.  Years  ago, 
while  digging  potatoes,  I  found  in  a  row  of  fine,  large  potatoes,  one  plant  that 
made  no  large  ones,  but  had,  by  actual  count,  44  potatoes  not  larger  than  a 
walnut  in  the  largest,  and  some  still  smaller.  Here  was  evidently  what  gar- 
deners call  a  "sport,"  or  variation  from  the  normal.  The  variety  was  the 
Beauty  of  Hebron,  a  potato  which,  in  our  experience,  makes  large  potatoes, 
but  not  usually  many  in  a  hill.  I  saved  the  prolific  hill  and  the  next  year 
it  made  potatoes  about  as  large  as  the  normal  type,  but  far  more  in  a  hill, 
and,  of  course,  a  larger  crop,  and  for  years  after  I  found  this  a  superior  strain 
of  the  Hebron.  So  it  may  be  that  small  potatoes  may  be  the  starting  point 
for  an  improvement. 

But  whether  the  potatoes  are  large  or  small,  we  cannot  believe  that  small 
pieces  are  as  good  to  plant  as  large  ones.  The  starch  in  the  tuber  is  put  there 
by  the  plant  for  the  sustenance^ of  the  young  plant  till  it  makes  green  leaves 
in  the  sunlight  and  is  able  to  store  its  own  starch.  As  the  potato  sprouts, 
the  starch  is  changed  into  glucose  for  the  food  of  the  living  matter.     Pota- 


242 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

toes  that  sprout  in  the  cellar  become  clammy  and  sweetish  to  the  taste  be- 
cause of  this  change ;  the  sprouts  use  up  part  of  the  stored  food,  and  the  pota- 
to is  weakened  by  the  sprouting.  We  want  for  planting  a  good  piece  with 
well  developed  eyes  and  a  store  of  food  that  has  not  been  deteriorated  by 
sprouting  in  the  cellar.  More  plants  can  be  had  from  single-eye  cuttings,  but 
we  are  satisfied  that  continuous  single-eye  cutting  will  eventually  lead  to  a 
weakened  stock.  The  principal  thing  after  the  potatoes  are  planted  is  to 
keep  the  spring  moisture  in  the  ground,  by  constantly  keeping  a  mulch  of 
finely  pulverized  soil  on  the  surface  and  never  allowing  a  crust  to  form. 
This  can  best  be  done  with  the  weeder,  in  the  early  stages  of  the  growth  of 
the  crop,  going  both  ways  over  the  land  before  the  tops  appear  and  afterwards 
as  long  as  the  tops  will  admit,  and  then  finishing  with  the  small  tooth  culti- 
vator till  the  tops  are  mature. 

early  potatoes  in  the  south. 

The  planting  and  cultivation  of  the  potato  for  early  shipment  from  the 
Southern  States  to  the  Northern  markets,  is  a  very  different  matter  from  the 
production  of  the  farm  crop  in  the  N'orth.  Here  it  is  the  crop  of  the  market 
gardener  rather  than  of  the  farmer.  The  crop  has  attained  to  great  import- 
ance in  the  South  Atlantic  States  and  also  in  the  Lower  Mississippi  Valley. 
Florida,  of  course,  comes  into  the  market  first,  and  close  behind  the  crop 
from  Bermuda.  Of  late  years  the  crop  from  the  South  Atlantic  States, 
grown  in  the  fall  from  seed  potatoes  of  the  early  crop,  which  are  now  used 
entirely  in  these  States  for  planting  the  first  crop,  are  often  lifted  in  Febru- 
ary and  shipped  North  in  barrels  whitewashed  in  imitation  of  the  Bermuda 
barrels,  and  sold  as  "New  Bermudas,"  at  a  fine  price,  whenever  there  is  a 
surplus  over  the  local  demand  for  the  spring  planting.  Formerly  the  market 
gardeners  of  the  South  depended  on  Northern  seed  potatoes  for  the  spring 
planting.  But  now  it  is  the  universal  practice  to  plant  the  second  crop  seed 
of  the  previous  year. 

It  is  found  that  these  potatoes,  dug  in  December  and  planted  again  in 
February,  are  entirely  unsprouted,  and  they  start  to  grow  more  slowly  than 
the  Northern  potatoes  that  have  been  trying  to  sprout  all  winter,  and  are 
less  liable  to  be  caught  by  frost  after  they  are  up  than  the  Northern  seed; 
and  also  that  they  seem  to  be  more  resistant  to  frost  when  up.  Starting  with 
the  full  vigor  of  the  terminal  bud,  they  make  a  stronger  plant  than  the 
Northern  potatoes  that  have  been  long  kept  out  of  the  ground  and  have  had 
the  terminal  sprouts  rubbed  off,  hence  start  with  a  bunch  of  lateral  eyes. 
The  early  potato  crop  in  the  South  is  never  sprouted  before  planting,  as  they 


Irish  Potatoes — 243 

are  planted  so  early  that  quick  sprouting  would  be  risky.  The  extent  to 
which  the  culture  has  attained  would  astonish  potato  growers  in  the  North, 
who,  because  they  still  supply  the  larger  part  of  the  winter  table  demand 
in  the  South,  imagine  that  potatoes  are  not  grown  in  the  South  to  any  extent 
But  when  they  see  single  growers  planting  700  barrels  of  seed  potatoes  it 
would  seem  that  some  potatoes  are  grown  here.  The  early  crop  in  the  South 
needs  different  fertilization  from  that  grown  North.  Planted  at  such  an 
early  period  of  the  year  and  dug  before  hot  weather  begins,  and  before  the 
nitrification  is  very  active  in  the  soil,  there  is  a  greater  need  for  nitrogen  and 
heavy  fertilization  to  push  the  crop  than  there  is  in  the  North.  Then,  too, 
it  is  generally  more  valuable  and  the  grower  can  afford  to  be  more  lavish 
with  the  feeding  of  the  crop. 

FERTILIZING  THE  SOUTHERN  EARLY  CROP. 

The  great  need  of  the  potato  in  the  way  of  plant  food  is  a  complete  fer- 
tilizer in  which  potash  is  a  leading  constituent.  In  some  localities  along  the 
coast  near  the  ports  of  entry,  the  growers  have  concluded  that  they  can  get 
the  potash  needed  more  cheaply  from  kainit  than  from  the  more  concentrated 
potash  salts,  and  they  have  adopted  the  practice  to  apply  the  potash  needed 
by  giving  a  heavy  dressing  of  kainit  to  the  land  in  the  fall  before  the  planting. 
They  argue  that  in  this  way  they  get  rid,  during  the  winter  rains,  of  the 
excess  of  chloride  of  sodium,  and  that  in  its  leaching  it  renders  available 
other  forms  of  valuable  plant  food.  But  by  far  the  greater  number  adhere  to 
the  application  of  potash  in  their  fertilizer  mixture  in  the  form  of  muriate 
of  potash  at  or  Just  before  the  planting  time.  In  some  sections  of  the  coun- 
try it  is  claimed  that  the  sulphate  of  potash  produces  potatoes  of  a 
finer  quality,  and  more  starchy  and  dry.  But  the  Southern  grower  finds  that 
the  muriate  gives  him  the  best  crop,  and  as  no  one  expects  to  find  these  early 
potatoes  dry  and  starchy  like  the  mature  Northern  crop,  he  prefers  quantity 
to  quality. 

One  of  the  largest  growers  of  early  potatoes  on  the  Atlantic  coast  uses 
the  following  mixture  at  the  rate  of  one  ton  per  acre:  Fish  scrap,  700 
pounds;  sodium  nitrate,  300  pounds;  acid  phosphate,  600  pounds;  muriate 
of  potash,  400  pounds  This,  it  will  be  seen,  is  a  very  highly  nitrogenous  and 
potassic  compound,  and  the  growers  of  potatoes  have  been  compelled  to  make 
their  own  mixture  because  none  of  the  factory  made  articles  have  the  amount 
of  nitrogen  or  potash  which  they  wish.  The  above  would  be  five  and  one- 
half  per  cent,  nitrogen,  seven  and  two  fifths  per  cent,  of  phosphoric  acid  and 
ten  per  cent,  of  potash,  and  it  forms  a  typical  Southern  early  potato  fertilizer. 


244 — Crop  Groaving  and  Crop  Feeding 

This  is  spread  by  a  machine  made  for  the  purpose,  in  and  on  both  sides  of 
the  furrow  made  for  planting,  and  is  mixed  with  the  soil  by  running  a 
specially  contrived  narrow  harrow  in  the  rows  before  planting  the  potatoes. 
Since  the  roots  of  the  potato  ramble  in  a  small  space,  the  fertilization  in 
the  furrow  is  all  sufficient,  and  the  potatoes  are  simply  covered  in  the  fertil- 
izer as  the  furrows  are  thrown  over  them  from  each  side.  The  growers 
watch  the  weather  reports  closely  after  the  potatoes  begin  to  show  above 
ground,  and  when  cold  is  predicted,  the  field  will  be  filled  with  teams  plowing 
the  earth  over  the  tops  as  a  protection.  In  the  spring  of  1894  there  was  a 
very  disastrous  frost  late  in  March,  after  a  long  period  of  warm  weather  which 
had  started  the  potatoes  into  a  very  strong  growth.  One  of  the  largest  grow- 
ers, who  had  125  acres  of  potatoes  growing,  told  the  writer  that  he  started 
thirty  plows  covering  the  potatoes  in  the  morning.  But  at  noon  it  seemed 
so  much  warmer  he  thought  the  weather  man  was  in  error  and  stopped  the 
plows.  He  said  that  he  lost  $1,000  by  doing  so,  as  all  unprotected  tops  were 
cut  down  the  following  night,  and  the  potatoes  thus  cut  down  came  on  late 
and  in  competition  with  the  Norfolk  crop  while  the  covered  ones  were  ready 
to  dig  the  last  of  May  and  brought  $5  per  barrel.  He  said  that  hereafter  he 
would  depend  upon  the  warnings  of  the  weather  service.  The  cultivation  of 
this  early  crop  does  not  differ  in  any  respect  from  the  early  crop  elsewhere. 
They  are  worked  with  harrow  and  cultivator  and  are  laid  by  with  a  furrow 
from  each  side.  This  ridge  drying  out  and  getting  warm  early  hastens  the 
maturity  of  the  crop,  and  great  crops  are  produced  by  the  best  growers,  crops 
that  would  be  considered  immense  in  the  best  potato  sections  North. 

growing  seed  potatoes  in  the  south. 

The  seed  potatoes  in  the  South  are  always  grown  from  the  potatoes  of  the 
early  crop.  There  is  some  variation  in  the  methods  used,  but  the  general 
practice  is  to  keep  the  potatoes,  after  digging,  in  a  place  where  they  will  get 
greened  by  light  and  not  direct  sunshine,  and  then  to  cut  small  pieces  off  the 
ends  and  place  them  under  cover  of  straw  on  the  ground  to  sprout.  The 
sprouted  potatoes  are  planted  in  a  deep  furrow  the  middle  of  August,  and 
covered  rather  lightly  till  the  leaves  show,  and  then  the  earth  is  gradually 
worked  to  them  till  perfectly  level  and  is  kept  so.  This  crop  seldom  ma- 
tures fully,  as  the  tops  are  finally  cut  by  frost,  though  we  have  had  them 
grow  here  unharmed  till  the  first  of  December.  They  are  dug  early  in 
December,  buried  in  the  field  and  covered  with  pine  straw  and  earth  till  they 
are  wanted,  either  for  sale  or  planting.  Many  of  them,  as  we  have  said,  go 
to  New  York  in  February  as  new  Bermuda  potatoes,  and  bring  $3  to  $5  per 


Irish  Potatoes — 245 

barrel.  The  practice  is  not  a  bad  one,  as  the  potatoes  are  really  better  than 
the  real  Bermudas.  This  second  crop  is  usually  planted  where  some  early 
crop  was  heavily  fertilized  and  no  extra  fertilization  is  given  it,  as  the  pota- 
toes are  used  mainly  for  seed  and  a  very  large  size  is  not  sought. 

In  the  mountain  regions  of  the  South  the  methods  for  growing  late  pota- 
toes as  practiced  northward  are  the  rule,  and  much  of  the  supply  of  table  pota- 
toes for  the  Southern  cities  in  winter  comes  from  the  mountains  of  North 
Carolina. 

POTATOES  IN  THE  HOME  GARDEN. 

Many  people  in  towns  and  villages,  as  well  as  some  on  the  farm,  like  to 
have  a  small  patch  of  early  potatoes  for  the  table  planted  in  the  garden.  Old 
gardens  are  very  poor  places  for  potatoes  unless  they  are  carefully 
treated.  It  is  quite  commonly  heard  after  experiments  in  potato  culture  in 
the  home  garden,  "My  garden  is  too  rich  for  potatoes ;  they  all  run  to  tops ;" 
and  the  fact  that  they  have  gigantic  tops  and  quite  small  tubers  is  very  ap- 
parent. Now  the  soil  produced  these  great  tops,  and  the  great  tops  failed  to 
perform  their  duty — for  it  is  the  top  that  makes  the  potato — and  here  were 
surely  tops  enough  to  have  made  a  large  crop,  while  the  fact  is  the  crop  is 
miserably  small.  Why  is  it  thus?  We  have  shown  that  the  carbonaceous 
matter  in  plants  comes  from  the  air  through  the  power  which  the  green  matter 
of  the  leaves  has  to  decompose  carbon  di-oxide  in  the  air — take  the  carbon  and 
leave  the  oxygen.  After  taking  the  carbon,  the  plant  in  the  leaf  makes  the 
carbohydrates  out  of  the  carbon,  oxygen  and  hydrogen  taken  from  air  and 
soil.  The  first  carbohydrate  is  probably  some  form  of  sugar  for  the  im- 
mediate sustenance  of  the  living  matter  of  the  plant,  and  when  this  want  is 
supplied  the  plant  forms  starch  as  a  storage  form  of  food  to  keep  for  future 
use.  But  it  is  found  that  the  plant  will  not  make  (or  cannot  make)  the 
change  from  sugar  to  starch  except  in  the  presence  of  an  abundant  supply  of 
potash,  in  proportion  to  the  nitrogen  and  phosphoric  acid  present.  The  effect 
of  nitrogen  is  to  form  a  heavy  growth  of  all  parts  of  the  plant,  but  especially 
of  the  foliage.  This  heavy  foliage  ought  to  assimilate  more  carbon  and  store 
more  starch  than  a  weaker  growth,  and  it  will  do  it  if  there  is  a  proper  pro- 
portion of  the  mineral  elements  present.  The  old  garden  soil  has  grown 
big  tops  and  small  potatoes,  not  because  it  is  too  rich,  but  because  it  is  too 
poor  in  phosphoric  acid  and  potash.  The  soil  has  for  years  been  manured 
with  stable  manure  until  there  is  an  excess  of  nitrogen  over  the  other  ele- 
ments and  the  great  growth  is  there,  but  it  is  a  poorly  balanced  growth,  and 
the  foliage  cannot  perform  its  part  in  the  construction  of  starch,  although 
there  is  a  great  activity  in  all  the  vital  functions  of  the  plant  and  a  very  rapid 


246 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

growth  of  tops  going  on,  but  the  resources  of  the  plant  are  taxed  to  keep  up 
this  growth  and  there  is  no  surplus  to  store  in  tubers.  Hence,  if  you  are 
trying  to  grow  potatoes  in  an  old  garden,  do  not  put  more  stable  manure  on 
the  land,  for  that  will  only  increase  the  trouble,  but  give  it  a  heavy  dressing 
of  a  mixture  of  four  parts  of  acid  phosphate  to  one  part  of  muriate  of  potash. 
Use  this  at  rate  of  500  pounds  per  acre  and  you  will  find  that  your  old  garden 
soil  is  not  too  rich  to  grow  potatoes.  It  is  simply  suffering  from  an  ill  bal- 
anced food  ration,  and  there  is  nothing  that  will  sooner  renovate  and  restore  an 
old  garden  than  a  use  of  commercial  fertilizers  on  it  for  a  time.  The  old 
garden  which  has  been  heavily  manured  with  stable  manure  for  generations, 
has  gotten  into  the  bad  habit  of  running  everything  to  tops,  and  the  only 
way  to  get  it  out  of  this  habit  is  to  restore  the  balance  in  the  soil  food  ele- 
ments. The  commercial  fertilizers  will  have  a  far  better  effect  on  such  soil 
than  they  would  on  poor  soil,  because  of  the  abundant  supply  of  humus  which 
the  garden  has  acquired  during  the  past  years.  This  humus  retains  moisture 
and  enables  the  soil  to  fully  dissolve  all  the  available  food  in  the  fertilizer, 
and  the  plants  get  the  benefit  of  the  application  far  more  certainly  than  they 
would  have  gotten  it  in  a  poor  soil  incapable  of  retaining  so  much  moisture. 
The  old  garden  is  not  too  rich,  it  is  simply  unbalanced. 

VARIETIES   OF   POTATOES. 

It  is  rather  beyond  the  scope  of  this  book  to  give  detailed  lists  of  varie- 
ties of  the  crops  grown.  There  are  so  many  fine  sorts  of  Irish  potatoes  now 
offered  by  dealers  that  a  list  would  simply  confuse  instead  of  enlighten.  It 
is,  however,  curious  to  note  that  with  the  great  increase  of  the  introduction 
of  new  varieties,  the  market  gardeners  and  the  farmers  to  a  great  extent  ad- 
here to  the  old  favorites.  In  the  South  the  Early  Eose  and  Bliss's  Triumph 
almost  equally  divide  the  attention  of  the  market  growers  of  early  potatoes, 
the  Bliss  being  the  favorite  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  the  Rose  still  tak- 
ing the  lead  on  the  Atlantic  coast.  A  variety  (or  sport)  of  the  Bliss's  Tri- 
umph, known  as  White  Skinned  Triumph,  has  been  produced,  that  some  pre- 
fer as  a  more  salable  potato  to  the  red  skinned  sort.  Our  enterprising  seeds- 
men annually  give  us  new  potatoes,  many  of  which  are  of  surprising  excel- 
lence, but  it  takes  a  long  time  for  a  new  potato  to  become  standard  with  the 
market  growers.  In  Pennsylvania  and  for  the  far  West  the  Burbank  has  be- 
come the  standard  potato  for  the  main  crop,  and  seems  to  satisfy  the  condi- 
tions where  it  has  become  so,  until  growers  hardly  think  of  any  other.  The 
Experiment  Stations  in  some  States  give  us  the  results  of  trials  of  long  lists 
of  varieties,  while  we  are  of  the  opinion  that  it  would  be  far  better  to  devote 
more  attention  to  the  development  and  improvement  of  the  old  sorts. 


Irish  Potatoes — 247 

do  potatoes  run  out? 

Undoubtedly  under  careless  culture  a  variety  may  become,  in  a  particu- 
lar place  and  with  a  particular  grower,  inferior  in  quality  and  productive- 
ness. But  we  cannot  agree  that  a  good  variety  of  potato  cannot  be  kept  up 
to  the  standard  and  even  improved  by  the  proper  selection  of  seed  potatoes. 
Farmers  have  long  discussed  the  question  whether  small  potatoes  are  as  good 
as  large  ones  for  planting,  and  many  seem  to  forget  that  the  potato  tuber  is 
not  properly  a  seed  at  all,  but  an  underground  development  of  the  stem  of 
the  plant.  If  a  planter  chooses  a  potato  simply  because  it  is  large  and  rejects 
another  simply  because  it  is  small,  he  shows  that  he  has  not  studied  the  laws 
of  plant  life.  Planting  large  potatoes  for  no  other  reason  than  size  will 
probably  result  in  the  planter  getting  larger  than  if  he  planted  small  ones 
simply  because  they  were  small  and  hence  unsalable.  But  he  is  making  the 
same  mistake  that  he  would  in  selecting  any  plant  merely  for  the  size  of  the 
product;  he  may  get  size  at  the  expense  of  other  desirable  characters  in  the 
plant.  We  want  good  sized  potatoes  of  course,  but  we  want  large  crops  of 
good  sized  ones,  and  to  get  both  we  want  the  best  developed  plant  for  the 
purpose.  Conditions  may  make  the  potatoes  in  a  hill,  the  plant  of  which 
has  the  desirable  character  of  vigor  and  productiveness,  small.  But  these 
small  ones  have  a  tendency  to  inherit  the  productive  character  of  the  plant 
and  would  make  valuable  seed  stock  for  planting.  On  the  other  hand  a  large 
and  handsome  potato  or  two  may  be  the  entire  crop  on  a  plant  with  rather 
inferior  character,  and  which  simply  formed  one  or  two  potatoes.  These 
would  inherit  a  tendency  to  reproduce  similar  conditions.  Hence  in  the  sav- 
ing of  potatoes  for  seed,  the  real  student-farmer,  who  is  ever  on  the  lookout 
for  desirable  variations  in  the  plants  he  grows,  will  study  the  growing  plant ; 
and  will  go  through  and  mark  those  having  the  sturdy  and  well  developed 
plant  he  seeks  to  perpetuate.  Then,  at  digging  time,  he  will  study  the  re- 
sults in  each  case,  and  will  select  from  these  the  ones  that  have  the  greater 
number  of  desirable  characters  in  the  crop;  those  that  make  not  only 
the  greatest  number  of  tubers  but  the  greatest  number  in  proportion  of 
marketable  tubers.  Thus  year  after  year  he  will  be  devloping  and  perpetu- 
ating the  most  desirable  characters.  His  potatoes  will  never  "run  out,'^ 
while  those  of  the  man  who  always  plants  small  potatoes  because  they  are 
small  and  unsalable  and  the  man  who  always  plants  large  ones  simply  be- 
cause of  their  size,  may  find  a  deterioration  in  the  vi^or  and  productive 
capacity  of  his  plants  and  will  conclude  that  potatoes  run  out.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  the  constant  planting  of  culls  will  more  rapidly  run  out  the  crop 
than  the  constant  planting  of  only  the  large  ones. 


248 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

The  Southern  grower  of  the  second  crop  potatoes  for  seed  to  plant  the 
following  season  will  do  well  to  make  this  selection  from  the  early  crop,  and 
not  do  as  many  now  do,  plant  only  the  refuse  of  the  early  crop.  In  the  end 
such  a  course  must  finally  lead  to  deterioration.  Even  now  there  are  growers 
who  say  that  they  find  it  desirable  to  return  to  the  Northern  seed  stock  every 
five  or  six  years.  This  would  be  entirely  needless  if  the  proper  course  of 
selection. was  made  for  the  growing  of  the  second  crop  seed  potatoes. 

SOME  STATION  INVESTIGATIONS  IN  POTATO  CULTURE  AND  MANURING. 

Bulletin  136  of  the  New  Jersey  Station  gives  the  details  of  experiments 
with  nitrogenous  fertilizers  on  various  crops.  The  experiments  with  the 
potato  were  to  determine  the  relative  effect  of  the  three  different  and  distinct 
forms  of  nitrogen,  as  well  as  the  amounts  of  the  same  when  applied  to  a  light, 
sand  soil,  which  lacked  "condition"  and  was  poor  in  respect  to  physical  char- 
acter. It  is  well  understood  that  the  usefulness  to  the  immediate  crop  of 
the  best  forms  of  the  fertilizer  constituents  is  modified  by  the  character  of  the 
soil  to  which  it  is  applied,  that  larger  returns  per  unit  of  application  may  be 
expected  from  soils  which  have  been  well  cultivated  and  are  in  good  heart  or 
condition  than  from  soils  that  do  not  possess  these  characteristics.  The  soil 
was,  however,  well  supplied  with  phosphoric  acid  and  potash  previous  to 
planting  the  potatoes,  the  former  derived  from  acid  phosphate  and  bone  and 
the  latter  from  muriate  of  potash. 

Two  experiments  were  included,  each  containing  ten  plats  one-twentieth 
of  an  acre  each,  and  the  table  shows  the  amount  of  nitrogenous  fertilizers 
applied  and  the  yields  per  acre  of  each  individual  experiment  as  well  as  the 
combined  experiments,  calculated  on  the  basis  of  an  acre. 

Without  giving  the  detailed  table  here  we  will  summarize  from  the  bul- 
letin that  none  of  the  plats  reached  as  much  as  100  bushels  per  acre,  though 
the  relative  increase  in  yield  from  the  use  of  the  different  forms  of  nitrogen 
was  quite  considerable.  The  forms  used  were  nitrate  of  soda,  cotton  seed  meal 
and  sulphate  of  ammonia  in  various  amounts.  There  seemed  to  be  little 
difference  in  the  yield  from  variations  in  the  amount  used,  the  smaller  quan- 
tity having  been  practically  as  efficient  as  the  larger.  With  one  exception 
the  nitrate  of  soda  was  uniformly  more  effective  than  the  other  forms,  the 
increased  yield  from  the  nitrate  being  on  the  average  84  per  cent. ;  from  the 
sulphate  of  ammonia,  77  per  cent.,  and  from  cotton  seed  meal,  38  per  cent. 
The  experiment,  it  is  stated,  is  chiefly  valuable  in  showing  that  in  growing 
potatoes  on  such  poor  soils  the  first  need  is  for  physical  improvement,  rather 
than  for  large  doses  of  the  best  forms  of  plant  food.  That  is,  they  should  be 
made  more  absorptive  and  retentive  of  moisture  by  the  accumulation  of 


Irish  Potatoes — 249 


humus  in  the  soil  through  the  agency  of  legumes  or  the  application  of  domes- 
tic manures,  so  that  the  applied  nitrogenous  materials  may  be  more  fully 
utilized. 

Bulletin  137  of  the  New  York  Agricultural  Experiment  Station  says 
that  the  experiments  made  at  that  Station  furnish  strong  evidence  that  the  po- 
tato growers  of  Long  Island  are  annually  wasting  large  quantities  of  valu- 
able fertilizing  ingredients.  Market  gardening  is  there  carried  on  in  the  most 
intensive  manner,  and  the  fertility  of  the  somewhat  poor  soil  is  supplemented 
by  the  use  of  surprisingly  large  quantities  of  commercial  fertilizers,  an  outlay 
of  $20  per  acre  for  plant  food  of  this  character  being  not  uncommon.  Potato 
growers  frequently  apply  one  ton  of  high  grade  superphosphate  per  acre, 
while  in  the  Station  experiments  the  most  profitable  result  each  year  was  ob- 
tained by  the  use  of  only  half  this  quantity  of  fertilizer,  and  the  residual  or 
second  year  effect  was  practically  the  same  with  the  1,000  pounds  as  with  the 
2,000  pounds.  Heavier  yields  were  obtained  from  the  larger  application, 
but  the  additional  gain  from  the  use  of  more  than  1,000  pounds  of  fertilizer 
was  at  a  greatly  increased  cost  per  bushel.  We  would  note,  however,  that  the 
soils  at  Geneva  and  those  on  Long  Island  are  very  different  in  their  physical 
character,  and  the  latter  are  far  less  retentive  than  the  former.  The  plat  on 
which  no  fertilizer  was  applied  made  113.1  bushels  per  acre.  An  application 
of  500  pounds  of  fertilizer  made  an  increase  of  34.1  bushels  of  large  potatoes, 
1,000  pounds  made  an  increase  of  69.1  bushels  of  large  potatoes;  1,500  pounds 
made  an  increase  of  77.5  bushels  of  large  potatoes,  and  2,000  pounds  made 
78.7  bushels  increase.  It  was  found  that  the  fertilizer  formula  based  on  the 
analysis  of  the  potato,  gave  less  results  than  the  formula  commonly  used  on 
Long  Island,  which  contains  4  per  cent,  nitrogen,  8  per  cent,  phosphoric  acid 
and  10  per  cent,  of  potash  in  the  form  of  a  muriate. 

The  following  table  is  given,  showing  the  influence  on  the  crop  of  the 
different  fertilizers: 


Amount  per  acre. 

Plats. 

station  Formula. 
Yield  per  acre. 

L.  I,  Formula. 

Increase  In 

Plats. 

Yield. 

L.  I.  Formula. 

None 

8 
4 
4 
4 
4 

113.1  bus. 
125.5  bus. 

166.2  bus. 
166.8  bus. 
178.4  bus. 

8 
4 
4 
4 
4 

113.1 
163.8 
184.7 
.189.5 
190.4 

500  lbs 

38  3  bus. 

1000  lbs 

18  5  bus 

15001bs 

22.7  bus. 

2000  lbs 

12.0  bus. 

Average 

16 

159.2  bus. 

16 

182.1 

22.9  bus. 

The  Long  Island  formula  gave  better  results  with  each  quantity  of  fertil- 
izer and  produced  an  average  of  nearly  23  bushels  per  acre  more  than  did 


250 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

the  formula  based  on  the  composition  of  the  tubers.  The  difference  between 
the  two  fertilizers  was  strikingly  shown  by  the  appearance  of  the  vines,  for 
those  upon  the  Long  Island  formula  plats  were  one-fourth  larger  than  those 
receiving  the  other  formula,  and  in  at  least  one  instance  the  vines  were  of  a 
darker  green.  The  two  fertilizers  differed  in  the  proportions  of  two  ingredi- 
ents only,  the  Station  formula  being  richer  in  nitrogen  and  poorer  in  phos- 
phoric acid  than  the  Long  Island  formula,  potash  being  the  same  in  each. 
The  variation  in  effect  of  the  two  combinations  seemed  greatest  where  the 
smaller  quantities  were  applied,  which  may  indicate  either  that  the  Station 
formula  did  not,  in  small  quantities,  furnish  enough  phosphoric  acid,  or 
that  in  large  amount  it  contained  an  undesirable  quantity  of  the  nitrogen 
compounds.  In  either  case,  if  future  experiments  substantiate  the  results 
of  this  trial,  the  claim  that  the  composition  of  a  crop  should  be  the  guide  in 
mixing  special  fertilizers  will  be  discredited.  As  the  best  form  of  potash 
the  bulletin  says  that  it  has  been  thought,  and  has  been  supported  by  some 
experiments,  that  the  liberal  use  of  the  muriate  of  potash  tends  to  lower  the 
percentage  of  starch  and  dry  matter  in  the  potato,  therefore  chemical  analyses 
were  made  of  tubers  from  each  plat  and  comparisons  were  made  of  those  re- 
ceiving potash  in  the  two  forms  of  sulphate  and  muriate,  in  hope  that  light 
might  be  thrown  on  that  question.  Taking  the  average  of  16  plats  for  each 
manner  of  treatment,  it  was  found  that  where  sulphate  of  potash  had  been 
used  the  potatoes  produced  more  of  both  dry  matter  and  starch  than  where 
muriate  had  been  applied.  But  the  significance  of  these  results  was  utterly 
nullified  by  the  fact  that  the  tubers  from  the  unfertilized  plat  adjacent  to 
those  differently  fertilized  differed  in  the  same  way,  and  to  almost  exactly  the 
same  extent,  seeming  to  show  that  it  was  a  natural  difference  in  the  soil  of 
the  plats  rather  than  the  kind  of  fertilizer  used.  The  muriate  in  our  own 
experience  has  always  given  the  largest  yield,  and  so  far  as  table  tests  can  go 
of  fully  as  good  quality  as  those  grown  with  the  sulphate,  which  is  the  more 
costly  form. 

This  fact  is  borne  out  by  the  results  at  the  Cornell  University  Experi- 
ment Station,  where  an  application  of  200  pounds  of  muriate  of  potash  and 
300  pounds  of  acid  phosphate  made  318.2  bushels  per  acre,  and  the  same 
amount  of  fertilizer  with  the  potash  in  the  form  of  a  sulphate  made  310.5 
bushels  per  acre.  On  two  other  plats  the  difference  was  still  greater,  for  the 
plat  on  which  the  same  amount  of  muriate  of  potash  was  used  made  360.6 
bushels  per  acre  while  the  plat  on  which  the  sulphate  was  used  made  but 
333.5  bushels.  Potatoes  that  were  cultivated  thirteen  times  made  a  smaller 
crop  than  those  cultivated  nine  times,  and  it  was  evident  that  nine  cultiva- 
tions will  give  the  better  crop  in  an  average  season.     Still,  as  the  bulletin 


Irish  Potatoes — 251 

well  states,  the  effects  of  good  culture  are  very  plain,  for  in  spite  of  adverse 
conditions  the  crop  was  an  excellent  one.  The  average  yield  of  potatoes 
per  acre  in  the  State  of  New  York  the  same  year  was  only  from  50  to  65 
bushels  per  acre,  while  the  average  on  the  Station  grounds  was  over  300 
bushels  per  acre,  on  soil  not  naturally  more  fertile  than  the  average,  and, 
in  fact,  showing  by  analysis  a  lower  fertility  than  the  average.  In  a  subse- 
quent bulletin  from  the  same  Station  it  was  found  that  six  or  seven  cultiva- 
tions gave  the  best  results,  and  that  success  with  the  potato  crop  depends 
largely  on  the  preparation  given  the  soil  before  the  potatoes  are  planted. 
Plowing  should  be  deep,  and  at  the  time  of  planting  the  soil  should  be  mellow 
and  loose,  the  crop  planted  early  and  deep  and  the  cultivation  frequent  and 
level.     Harrowing  before  the  potatoes  came  up  gave  marked  results. 

The  Rhode  Island  Eperiment  Station  has  done  a  great  deal  of  work  in 
the  investigation  of  the  effects  of  lime  on  soils.  In  regard  to  the  growing  of 
])otatoes  free  from  scab,  the  statement  is  made  that  on  land  in  an  acid  con- 
dition and  containing  no  lime,  the  potatoes  may  be  grown  practically  free 
from  scab,  if  only  commercial  fertilizers  are  used;  that  a  gain  in  the  crop 
may  be  made  from  an  application  of  lime  on  such  soils,  but  the  prevalence 
of  the  scab  is  increased  thereby.  Wood  ashes  will  also  increase  the  amount 
of  scabby  potatoes.  An  application  of  the  chloride  of  lime  entirely  prevented 
the  scab,  but  injured  the  crop  of  potatoes.  The  sulphate  of  lime,  commonly 
known  as  land  plaster,  is  the  only  form  of  lime  that  was  found  not  to  injure 
the  growth  of  the  crop  and  at  the  same  time  did  not  favor  the  increase  of  the 
scab.  Barnyard  manure,  owing  to  its  alkalinity  or  the  production  of  car- 
bonates from  it,  has  probably  in  and  of  itself  increased  the  scab.  Upon  an 
acid  soil,  practical  immunity  from  scab  has  been  secured  upon  three  successive 
crops  by  the  use  of  fertilizers  such  as  the  ordinary  commercial  fertilizers, 
even  when  scabby  tubers  were  used  as  seed  and  were  not  treated  for  the  scab. 
On  such  soils  the  potatoes  can  be  profitably  produced  by  the  use  of  commer- 
cial fertilizers. 

At  the  Ohio  Station  it  is  stated  that  superphosphate  has  increased  the 
potato  crop  to  a  profitable  extent,  the  cost  of  a  bushel  increase  being  but  five 
to  six  cents.  There  was  not  found  much  difference  in  the  efficiency  of  super- 
phosphate from  the  dissolved  rock  and  from  bone  black,  but  slag  phosphate 
gave  lower  results  than  the  other  forms.  Wheat  bran  was  a  better  fertilizer 
than  linseed  meal.  Nitrate  of  soda  and  muriate  of  potash,  when  used  singly, 
have  not  given  much  increase.  Superphosphate,  nitrate  of  soda  and  muriate 
of  potash  in  combination  have  given  better  results  than  either  alone,  and  the 
crop  increase  has  been  nearly  in  proportion  to  the  quantity  used  up  to  1,100 
pounds  per  acre. 


252 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

At  the  Maryland  Station  it  was  found  that  a  complete  fertilizer  in  which 
nitrate  of  soda  and  an  organic  form  of  nitrogen  was  used  in  connection  with 
acid  phosphate  and  sulphate  of  potash,  gave  the  best  results  in  the  crop,  mak- 
ing several  bushels  more  than  the  same  formula  with  muriate  of  potash  used 
in  place  of  the  sulphate. 

At  the  Pennsylvania  Station  it  was  found  that  the  use  of  nitrogen  re- 
sulted in  a  profit  of  from  $2.17  to  $9.56  per  acre,  according  to  the  combina- 
tion in  which  it  was  used.  The  use  of  phosphoric  acid  resulted  in  a  gain  of 
$7.72  per  acre.  The  use  of  potash  resulted  in  a  gain  of  $17.39  per  acre.  The 
use  of  phosphoric  acid  and  potash  together  produced  a  gain  of  $52.02  per 
acre,  while  a  complete  fertilizer  containing  nitrogen,  phosphoric  acid  and 
potash  made  a  gain  of  $56.88  per  acre.  Nitrogen  alone  made  a  gain  of  $2.17 
per  acre,  showing  a  difference  in  the  effect  of  an  incomplete  and  complete 
fertilizer  of  $54.71  per  acre.  The  conclusions  arrived  at  were  that  on  that 
soil  potatoes  especially  needed  potash,  and  to  a  somewhat  less  degree,  phos- 
phoric acid.  The  effect  of  nitrogen  being  shown  to  be  small,  it  would  seem 
that  instead  of  purchasing  costly  artificial  supplies  of  nitrogen,  if  potatoes 
are  to  be  grown  extensively,  it  would  be  better  policy  to  secure  the  needed  sup- 
ply of  nitrogen  from  the  air  by  the  cultivation  of  leguminous  crops,  either 
used  as  green  manure  or  fed  to  animals,  and  to  confine  the  purchase  of  arti- 
ficial fertilizers  to  phosphate  and  potash.  It  seems  altogether  probable  that 
such  a  method  of  treatment  would  suffice  to  keep  the  supply  of  nitrogen  in 
the  soil  up  to  a  point  at  which  purchased  mineral  fertilizers  would  yield  their 
best  returns.  A  very  important  point  is  the  using  of  phosphoric  acid  and 
potash  together,  for  in  one  experiment,  while  the  phosphoric  acid  alone  gave 
a  gain  of  $7.72  per  acre  and  potash  alone  $17.39  per  acre,  when  the  two  were 
combined  they  gave  a  profit  of  $51.02  per  acre.  In  some  other  soils  experi- 
ment has  shown  that  while  potash  was  as  important  as  in  these  the  next  im- 
portant element  was  nitrogen,  and  this  is  usually  the  case  in  the  early  crop  of 
potatoes  grown  in  the  South  in  the  early  spring. 

The  Pennsylvania  bulletin  further  states  that  it  may  be  interesting  to 
compare  the  amounts  of  nitrogen,  phosphoric  acid  and  potash  applied  in  these 
experiments  with  those  contained  in  the  so-called  "potato  fertilizers"  so  large- 
ly offered  by  various  fertilizer  firms,  the  average  of  47  samples  of  such  fertil- 
izers analyzed  in  that  State  shows  the  following  percentages:  Nitrogen,  1.86 
per  cent. ;  total  phosphoric  acid,  11.16  per  cent. ;  potash,  5.55  per  cent.  Twelve 
hundred  pounds  per  acre  of  a  fertilizer  of  this  composition  would  have  con- 
tained the  following  amounts  of  these  ingredients,  as  compared  with  those 
contained  in  the  1,200  pounds  of  mixed  chemicals  applied  in  these  experi- 
ments : 


Irish  Potatoes — 253 


Average  potato  fertilizer. 


Nitrogen  

Phosphoric  acid 
Potash 


22.3  lbs. 

133.9  lbs. 

66.6  lbs. 


Mixed  chemicals. 


48  lbs. 

90  lbs. 

150  lbs. 


That  is,  the  average  potato  fertilizer  would  have  supplied  only  44.4  per 
cent,  as  much  potash  as  was  used  with  profit  in  these  trials,  while  it  would 
have  supplied  148.8  per  cent,  as  much  phosphoric  acid  and  almost  exactly 
half  as  much  nitrogen.  This  shows  that  for  some  soils  the  usual  potato  fer- 
tilizers are  not  properly  compounded,  and  makes  it  all  the  more  evident  that 
the  farmer  should  test  the  needs  of  his  soil  by  experiment.  The  bulletin 
well  remarks  that  the  conducting  of  an  experiment  involving  only  the  use  of 
eight  small  plats,  and  not  necessarily  continued  more  than  a  year  or  two, 
would  be  a  small  price  to  pay  for  knowledge  which  may  save  the  unnecessary 
expenditure  of  large  amounts  of  money  for  fertilizing  ingredients  already 
present  in  the  soil  in  more  than  sufficient  quantity.  No  farmer  can  afford 
to  spend  his  hard-earned  dollars  to  purchase  fertilizing  materials  without 
knowing,  first,  that  he  receives  the  value  of  his  money  in  a  commercial  sense, 
and  second,  that  the  material  which  he  buys  at  a  fair  commercial  price  is  the 
exact  material  needed  for  his  soil  and  crop. 

At  the  Kentucky  Station  it  was  shown  that  an  application  of  acid  phos- 
phate alone  made  a  smaller  crop  than  on  the  the  plat  where  no  fertilizer  was 
applied.  Potash  applied  alone  greatly  increased  the  yield,  as  did  nitrogen 
alone  to  some  extent,  but  the  best  results  were  from  nitrogen  and  notash 
mixed. 

At  the  Ohio  Station  a  comparison  was  made  between  the  second  crop 
seed  potatoes  from  the  South  and  Maine  potatoes.  The  potatoes  from  Maine 
and  Wisconsin  were  considerably  sprouted,  while  the  second  crop  seed  hardly 
showed  any  signs  of  sprouting.  They  were  in  excellent  condition  and  of  the 
best  quality.  The  yield  was  slightly  in  favor  of  the  Southern  second  crop 
seed  except  in  the  case  of  the  Early  Rose.  The  general  average  was  a  little 
in  favor  of  the  Northern  seed,  the  average  yi^d  from  the  second  crop  seed 
being  170  bushels  per  acre  and  of  the  Northern  seed  171  bushels  per  acre. 
In  1894  the  average  from  the  Southern  seed  was  105  bushels  per  acre  and  that 
from  the  Northern  seed  102  bushels  per  acre.  It  seemed  that  for  that  lati- 
tude there  may  be  no  advantage  in  the  Southern  seed,  provided  the  Northern 
seed  is  as  well  kept. 

In  regard  to  the  use  of  fertilizers  on  the  potato  crop  this  bulletin  says: 
"In  the  use  of  fertilizers  the  lowest  cost  per  bushel  of  increase  in  crop  has 
been  attained  in  the  use  of  superphosphate  alone,  but  the  greatest  gain  per 


254 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

acre  has  been  with  1,100  pounds  per  acre  of  fertilizer  containing  phosphoric 
acid,  nitrogen  and  potash.  Muriate  of  potash  and  nitrate  of  soda,  when 
used  alone,  have  not  given  a  profitable  increase,  but  have  proved  beneficial  in 
connection  with  superphosphate.  Phosphoric  acid  seems  to  have  been  the 
controlling  element  in  an  increase  in  the  potato  crop  in  all  of  our  experi- 
ments.'' 

This  shows  the  importance  of  testing  the  needs  of  the  soil  experimental- 
ly, for,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  Pennsylvania  experiments,  phosphoric  acid  had 
less  effect  than  potash  alone,  and  the  same  was  found  to  be  the  case  in 
Kentucky.  But  in  one  co-operative  experiment  given  in  the  Kentucky  bulle- 
tin it  was  shown  that  on  a  soil  different  from  that  of  the  Station  the  same  re- 
sults were  had  as  detailed  by  the  Ohio  Station,  showing  a  great  variation  in 
the  manurial  requirements  of  different  soils,  even  in  the  same  State. 

At  the  Texas  Station  it  was  found  that  potash,  either  as  a  muriate  or  sul- 
phate, produced  a  paying  crop,  and  that  bone  black  was  the  best  one-sided  fer- 
tilizer. In  regard  to  the  Southern  second  crop  seed  potatoes  the  Texas  Sta- 
tion says:  "So  far  as  our  experience  goes,  it  seems  safe  to  conclude  that  sec- 
ond crop  potatoes  are  as  good,  if  not  better,  for  planting,  than  Northern 
grown  seed." 


CHAPTEE  XXXVII. 

SWEET  POTATOES, 

Our  sweet  potato  is  a  member  of  the  morning  glory  family  and  is  not  of 
the  same  family  as  the  Irish  potato.  Unlike  the  Irish  potato,  too,  it  is  a 
true  root  and  not  a  tuber,  though  tuberous  in  form.  The  sweet  potato  de- 
lights in  a  warm,  sandy  soil,  and  will  not  reach  its  best  condition  in  any 
other,  though  fair  success  can  be  had  in  heavier  loams.  Though  differing  in 
character  from  the  Irish  potato  its  manurial  requirements  are  very  similar. 
But  as  the  plant  grows  through  the  long,  hot  season,  when  nitrification  is 
active  in  the  soil  and  is  still  further  promoted  by  the  rank  cover  of  the  vines, 
the  crop  needs  far  less  nitrogenous  manures  than  the  early  crop  of  Irish 
potatoes.  In  fact,  any  excess  of  nitrogen  will  lead  to  a  rank  development 
of  tops  at  the  expense  of  the  roots,  and  while  these  rank  vines  are  capable  of 
storing  large  quantities  of  the  starch  and  sugar  so  important  in  the  tuberous 
roots,  they  cannot  do  this  unless  there  is  plenty  of  the  mineral  elements  over 
and  above  that  needed  for  the  perfection  of  the  top-growth.  Hence  phos- 
phoric acid  and  potash  are  far  more  important  for  the  crop  than  nitrogen, 
and  the  slowly  available  organic  matter  is  better  than  the  immediately  avail- 
able nitrogen  of  a  nitrate.  While  on  the  northern  limit  of  the  culture  of  the 
sweet  potato  it  may  be  desirable  to  use  stable  manure  in  its  production,  such 
would  be  rather  a  hindrance  than  a  help  in  the  South.  The  large  market 
growers  understand  the  requirements  of  the  plant  very  well  and  they  under- 
stand that  the  humus  forming  matter  in  the  rakings  of  a  pine  forest  are  de- 
sirable as  an  application  to  the  soil,  not  alone  for  their  manurial  effect  but  for 
the  mechanical  lightening  of  the  soil  and  the  retention  of  moisture.  There- 
fore the  skilled  market  grower  of  sweet  potatoes  uses  the  forest  mold  only, 
as  the  organic  matter,  and  supplements  it  with  liberal  applications  of  the 
mineral  elements. 

(266) 


256 — Ckop  G  110 wing  and  Crop  Feeding 

manuring  for  the  sweet  potato  crop. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  organic  matter  needed  by  the  sweet  potato 
could  be  more  cheaply  grown  on  the  land  by  a  crop  of  legumes  than  by  the 
laborious  raking  up  and  hauling  and  spreading  of  the  forest  mold,  and  it 
is  hoped  that  the  growers  will  soon  find  out  this  fact.  There  need  be  no 
fear  that  there  will  be  an  excess  of  nitrogen,  provided  it  is  balanced  by  a 
liberal  application  of  phosphoric  acid  and  potash.  It  is  not  the  amount  of 
nitrogen  that  is  harmful  but  the  excess  in  proportion  to  the  other  constituents, 
and  a  very  rank  growth  of  vines  may  produce  a  fine  crop  of  roots  if  the  food 
is  at  hand  which  is  needed  for  the  storing  of  starch  and  sugar.  It  is  the 
unbalanced  ration  in  the  soil  that  does  the  harm  and  not  the  amount  of  plant 
food  present.  We  have  explained  that  in  discussing  the  garden  culture  of  the 
Irish  potato  in  which  similar  conditions  exist.  The  rotation  of  crops  and  the 
growing  of  legumes  is  just  as  important  to  the  vegetable  grower  as  to  the 
farmer,  and  in  no  way  can  he  so  economically  stock  his  soil  with  the  needed 
humus  as  by  the  growing  of  legumes  between  sale  crops. 

But  no  matter  whether  we  haul  the  rotten  leaves  from  the  forest  or  get 
the  vegetable  decay  from  a  crop  of  pea  vines,  the  getting  of  it  in  the  soil  in 
abundance  is  an  important  matter  to  the  success  of  the  sweet  potato  crop. 
Having  this  organic  matter  then  there  will  be  no  need  for  the  application  of 
any  nitrogenous  fertilizer  whatever,  except  in  Northern  localities  where  the 
short  season  requires  that  the  crop  be  hurried.  In  such  cases  the  top  dressing 
along  the  rows  of  nitrate  of  soda  at  rate  of  25  pounds  per  acre  at  two  applica- 
tions, will  be  the  best.  The  general  mixture  for  use  in  the  Middle  and  South- 
ern States  will  then  be:  Acid  phosphate,  1,600  pounds;  sulphate  of  potash 
(high  grade),  400  pounds.  Five  hundred  pounds  per  acre  of  this  mixture 
will  be  an  abundant  dressing  for  the  sweet  potato  crop. 

GROWING  THE  PLANTS. 

Sweet  potatoes  are  always  grown  from  plants  sprouted  in  the  spring 
from  roots  kept  over  for  this  purpose.  That  is,  these  plants  are  always  used 
for  the  first  planting  in  the  South  and  for  the  entire  planting  in  the  North. 
The  late  crop  in  the  South  is  produced  from  cuttings  of  the  vines  of  the  early 
planted  crop.  In  the  North  it  is  the  common  practice  to  bed  the  potatoes 
in  a  hotbed  under  glass,  and  in  the  potato  growing  section  of  the  Middle 
States  fire-heated  beds  are  often  used.  In  the  South  the  bedding  is  general- 
ly done  in  the  open  ground  with  a  cover  of  straw  to  assist  in  keeping  out  cold. 
As  the  plants  cannot  be  set  in  the  open  ground  till  it  is  settled  and  warm. 


Sweet  Potatoes — 257 

it  is  useless  to  start  the  plants  too  early.  There  are  few  localities  in  the 
North  where  it  will  be  available  to  set  the  plants  before  the  last  of  May  or  the 
first  of  June. 

We  have  adopted  a  method  of  sprouting  sweet  potatoes  which  we  prefer 
to  any  other.  We  use  the  ordinary  cold  frame,  and  place  in  it  a  layer  of  clean 
sand.  On  this  we  place  the  small  potatoes  just  near  enough  not  to  touch. 
They  are  then  covered  with  clean  sand  about  two  inches  above  the  top  of  the 
potatoes.  The  sand  is  settled  with  a  sprinkling  of  warm  water,  and  the 
sashes  are  put  on  and  kept  close  until  the  potatoes  begin  to  sprout,  when  they 
are  opened  a  little  every  sunny  day  to  keep  the  temperature  from  getting 
too  high.  This  bedding  is  done  the  last  of  March.  We  prefer  the*  frame  to 
the  manure  heated  bed,  as  it  is  less  provocative  of  fungus  growths  that  dam- 
age the  plants,  and  though  the  sprouts  are  rather  slower  in  appearing  they  are 
stout  and  strong,  and  in  the  sand  get  well  rooted,  far  better  than  if  in  a  rich 
t<oil.  If  the  potatoes  are  sound  and  free  from  disease  there  will  be  little  dan- 
ger of  "black  shanked"  plants,  and  they  will  be  ready  as  early  as  it  is  safe  to 
set  them. 

CULTIVATION  OF  THE  SWEET  POTATO. 

A  few  days  ago  a  gentleman  from  Georgia,  seeing  the  low  ridges  on 
which  my  sweet  potatoes  were  growing,  was  very  much  surprised.  He  said: 
"We  throw  up  large  beds  with  the  plow  and  then  go  over  them  and  pull  them 
up  higher  with  the  hoe  so  as  to  have  high  beds  to  set  the  plants  in."  It  is 
strange  how  long  this  useless  practice  has  held  its  ground  in  the  South,  in- 
volving an  unnecessary  amount  of  labor  and  making  a  less  valuable  crop. 
The  sweet  potato  is  the  one  crop  for  which  we  always  plow  shallow,  as  we 
want  a  hard  bottom  right  under  the  ridge  in  which  they  grow  so  that  the 
potatoes  will  form  short  and  stout  rather  than  long  and  crooked.  The  upper 
four  inches  of  the  soil  we  prepare  as  thoroughly  as  possible,  and  then  lay  off 
furrows,  three  feet  apart,  in  which  the  fertilizer  is  scattered.  A  furrow  is 
thrown  from  each  side  with  a  single  plow,  so  as  to  form  a  list  over  the  first 
furrow.  Just  before  planting  the  top  of  this  ridge  is  flattened  with  a  rake, 
leaving  the  ridges  only  about  three  inches  high.  Plants  are  carefully  drawn 
from  the  bed  so  as  not  to  disturb  the  potatoes,  and  are  set  at  once  with  their 
roots  in  a  bucket  of  water.  They  are  set  thus  dripping,  are  placed  so  that 
only  the  tip  of  the  shoot  is  above  the  ground,  and  the  earth  is  pressed  firmly 
to  them.  If  the  land  is  moderately  moist  this  will  be  successful  without 
any  watering.  If  planted  when  the  soil  is  very  dry,  it  is  better  to  pour  a  cup 
of  water  in  each  hole  and  at  once  drop  the  plant  in  and  cover.     Cultivation 


258 — Crop  Geo  wing  and  Crop  Feeding 

with  the  small  tooth  cultivator  is  begun  as  soon  as  the  plants  get  hold  of  the 
soil,  and  is  kept  up  shallowly  till  the  vines  cover  the  ground.  The  last  vv^ork- 
ing  is  after  the  vines  get  quite  long.  A  hand  goes  ahead  and  throws  the  vines 
over  into  the  adjoining  space  and  the  cotton  sweep  is  used  to  throw  a  furrow 
to  the  row.  Each  alternate  row  is  thus  laid  by  and  then  the  vines  in  the 
other  rows  are  thrown  over  and  the  remaining  rows  earthed  up.  No  hand 
work  is  done  except  to  remove  any  grass  or  weeds  that  may  appear  in  the 
rows.  No  effort  is  made  to  throw  back  the  vines  from  the  last  working,  as 
they  can  wander  wherever  they  list.  Some  growers  go  through  the  field  later 
in  the  season  and  pull  the  vines  loose  where  they  have  rooted  to  the  ground, 
but  we  do. no  thing  of  the  sort  as  the  labor  in  doing  it  is  wasted. 

PLANTING  THE  LATE  CROP  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

The  sweet  potatoes  from  the  spring  planting  of  sprouts  make  the  earliest 
potatoes,  but  it  has  been  found  that  those  grown  later  in  the  season  are  more 
easily  kept  in  winter  than  the  spring  planted  ones.  Hence  all  large  growers 
produce  the  winter  keeping  crop  from  cuttings  set  in  summer  from  the  vines 
of  the  early  crop.  This  late  crop  is  grown  for  two  purposes.  First,  for  the 
production  of  a  crop  for  table  use  in  winter,  and,  secondly,  a  crop  of  small 
potatoes  for  bedding  in  the  spring.  For  the  table  crop  a  piece  of  land  is 
selected  from  which  some  early  crop  which  was  fairly  well  fertilized,  has 
been  taken  off.  Furrows  are  run  three  feet  apart,  and  cuttings  a  foot  long 
of  the  tips  of  vines  are  laid  along  the  furrow  slice  15  inches  apart,  and  an- 
other furrow  is  thrown  on  them  so  as  to  cover  all  bat  the  tip  of  the  cutting. 
Men  follow  and  tramp  the  earth  to  the  cuttings  and  the  work  is  done.  If  the 
ground  is  rather  moist  and  the  weather  favorable  nearly  every  cutting  will 
grow  and  they  are  worked  just  as  the  first  crop.  This  planting  is  done  early 
in  July.  For  the  seed  crop  cuttings  about  a  yard  long  are  made  in  August 
Ridges  are  made  as  for  spring  planting,  the  planter  coils  the  long  cutting 
around  one  hand,  and  inserts  the  whole  coil  in  the  ground  so  as  to  leave  only 
the  tip  exposed.  A  cluster  of  small  potatoes  will  form  at  every  covered  joint, 
and  these  ^^slips,"  as  they  are  called,  make  far  better  and  more  productive 
seed  for  the  spring  bedding  than  the  cullings  from  the  main  crop. 

HARVESTING  SWEET  POTATOES. 

The  crop  always  grows  till  frost  cuts  the  vines.  "V^Hien  the  first  light 
frost  has  blackened  the  leaves,  lose  no  time  in  taking  off  the  whole  of  the 
vines  from  the  hills,  even  if  you  do  not  dig  them  at  once,  for  the  decaying 


Sweet  Potataoes — 259 

vines,  if  left  on,  will  soon  affect  the  roots.  Choose  sunny  and  warm,  dry 
weather  for  digging.  Throw  a  furrow  from  each  side  with  a  small  plow  and 
then  take  the  potatoes  out  carefully  in  whole  bunches,  with  the  forked  hoe. 
Lay  them  carefully  along  the  rows  to  dry  in  the  sun,  and  on  no  account  allow 
them  to  thrown  in  heaps,  as  that  will  be  sure  to  bruise  them.  Gather  in 
baskets  and  haul  to  where  they  are  to  be  stored,  handling  at  all  times  as  care- 
fully as  eggs.  The  storing  is  the  most  important  thing  in  the  keeping  of 
the  crop. 

KEEPIN^G  SWEET  POTATOES  IN"  WINTER. 

This  has  always  been  the  great  difficulty  North  and  South.  Where  the 
crop  is  grown  on  a  large  scale  there  should  always  be  a  building  especially 
constructed  for  the  purpose  of  wintering  the  crop.  With  such  a  building  as 
we  will  hereafter  describe  the  keeping  in  winter  is  comparatively  easy  and 
certain.  Late  in  August,  1900,  I. met  a  gentleman  in  South  Carolina  to 
whom  I  had  given  directions  for  a  potato  house.  He  told  me  that  the  house 
had  been  a  great  success,  and  that  he  was  then  feeding  hogs  on  sweet  potatoes 
a  year  old,  grown  in  the  summer  of  1899.  The  common  practice  in  the 
South  is  to  keep  the  potatoes  in  "banks,'^  or  hills.  When  well  done,  and  the 
potatoes  are  carefully  handled  before  storing,  this  iaay  be  done  with  very 
good  chance  for  success.  Our  method  of  hilling  is  as  follows.  The  banks 
are  made,  if  possible,  under  a  shed  open  to  the  south.  If  no  such  shelter  is 
available  we  make  a  shed  at  least  to  keep  the  rain  off.  A  thick  layer  of  pine 
straw,  gathered  in  dry  weather  and  kept  dry,  is  laid  on  the  ground,  and  the 
potatoes  piled  in  conical  heaps  on  this  straw  about  25  bushels  in  a  pile.  The 
piles  are  then  thickly  covered  with  the  same  dry  pine  leaves,  and  left  till 
they  go  through  the  "sweat,"  which  they  are  certain  to  take  when  stored. 
After  they  have  dried  off  and  the  weather  is  getting  cool,  we  cover  the  heaps 
with  earth  lightly,  and  gradually  increase  the  cover  as  the  weather  gets  cold, 
till  they  have  a  foot  of  earth  over  them.  As  the  shed  keeps  the  rain  off  the 
dry  earth  will  keep  out'  any  frost,  and  if  the  potatoes  were  free  from  disease 
and  were  carefully  handled  in  storing  they  will  usually  keep  well. 

CONSTRUCTION  OF  A  POTATO  HOUSE. 

A  heated  building  for  the  keeping  of  sweet  potatoes  is  by  far  the  best 
method  for  their  preservation.  Such  a  house  should  not  be  over  ten  feet 
wide,  and  may  be  as  long  as  needed,  but  it  will  be  better  not  to  make  it  over 
fifty  feet  long,  if  heated  by  one  furnace.     Height  of  the  walls  is  a  matter  of 


260 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

convenience.  The  side  walls  and  the  roof  should  be  made  double  and  packed 
with  dry  sawdust.  Along  the  roof  a  ventilator  should  be  made,  which  can  be 
operated  from  one  end  with  the  same  apparatus  used  in  the  ventilation  of  a 
greenhouse.  Shelves  should  be  made  with  slatted  bottoms,  on  both  sides  of 
the  house,  four  feet  wide  and  far  enough  apart  to  store  the  potatoes  a  foot 
deep.  In  a  shed  at  the  north  end  build  a  brick  furnace  and  take  from  it  a 
brick  flue  straight  through  the  middle  of  the  house  to  a  chimney  at  the 
further  end.  Planks  can  be  laid  above  this  flue  as  a  walk  in  filling  and  to  be 
removed  before  any  firing  is  done.  Put  the  potatoes  carefully  on  the  shelv- 
ing, and  then  start  a  fire  in  the  furnace  and  run  the  temperature  up  to  90 
degrees  until  all  the  sweat  is  dried  off  the  potatoes,  keeping  the  ventilator  open 
slightly  all  the  time  to  let  off  steam.  When  the  potatoes  are  thoroughly  dry, 
close  the  house  and  then  only  in  very  cold  nights  may  there  be  any  need  for 
more  fire  heat.  So. long  as  the  temperature  can  be  kept  up  to  50  degrees 
there  will  be  no  need  for  fire  heat,  and  if  the  walls  are  well  deadened,  in  the 
South  this  will  be  easy.  In  such  a  house  it  is  perfectly  practicable  to  keep 
Eweet  potatoes  till  the  new  crop  of  the  following  year  is  large  enough  for  the 
table.  The  whole  secret  in  keeping  sweet  potatoes  is  to  handle  them  with  care 
and  then  dry  them  off  as  completely  as  possible,  then  maintain  a  temperature 
of  50  degrees  during  the  winter. 


SWEET   potatoes   NORTH   AND   SOUTH. 

There  is  a  wide  difference  in  the  character  of  the  sweet  potatoes  preferred 
by  people  in  the  North  and  in  the  South.  Those  who  grow  potatoes  for  the 
Northern  markets  are  compelled  to  grow  potatoes  which  no  Southerner  will 
eat  if  he  can  help  it.  The  Northern  market  demands  a  smooth,  yellow  potato, 
with  very  dry  flesh,  while  the  Southerner  wants  the  sweeter  sugary  and  jelly- 
like "yam.^^  The  Southern  yam  is  not  a  true  yam,  but  merely  a  sweet  variety 
of  the  sweet  potato.  Tastes  of  people  North  and  South  have  been  largely 
formed  by  their  different  methods  of  cooking  the  roots.  Northern  people 
steam  or  boil  sweet  potatoes,  and  the  Southern  yam  is  worthless  for  any  such 
cooking,  while  the  dry  and  chokey  yellow  potatoes  sold  North  are  well  adapted 
to  such  a  method.  A  yellow  Nansemond,  or  "Yellow  Bark,"  as  they  are  called 
in  the  South,  if  cooked  by  baking  as  the  Southern  people  always  cook  sweet 
potatoes  is  such  a  chokey  article  that  it  is  difficult  to  eat,  while  the  Southern 
yam  steamed,  will  lose  its  sugary  character  and  be  a  mass  of  mush.  If  the 
Northern  users  of  sweet  potatoes  would  cook  the  Southern  potatoes  as  the 
Southern  people  cook  them  they  would  soon  find  that  the  dry  Nansemonds  are 


Sweet  Potatoes — 261 

becoming  tasteless  to  them  as  they  are  to  the  Southerner.  When  well  ma- 
tured in  winter  the  baked  yam,  with  its  jelly-like  meat,  is  a  delicious  morsel, 
and  far  sweeter  than  any  dry  potato.  But  the  market  grower  must  consult 
the  tastes  of  his  patrons,  and  it  will  probably  be  a  long  time  before  there  is 
a  demand  Xorth  for  the  vastly  superior  potatoes  the  Southern  people  eat  at 
home. 

varieties  of  the  sweet  potato. 

The  most  popular  potato  in  the  great  cities  of  the  Xorth  is  doubtless  the 
Yellow  Xansemond,  which  is  largely  grown  in  New  Jersey  and  Delaware, 
and  a  simihir  potato  known  in  Virginia  as  the  "Red  Nose,"  which  is  largely 
grown  in  the  Peninsula  of  Virginia  for  the  Northern  market.  All  potatoes 
of  this  class  are  known  as  "Yellow  Barks"  in  the  South,  and  are  there  grown 
only  by  those  engaged  in  shipping  North.  In  some  sections  of  Virginia  a 
large,  light  skinned  potato  with  yellow  flesh,  known  as  the  "Hayman"  or 
"Southern  Queen,"  is  grown  both  for  home  use  and  Northern  shipment.  It 
is  intermediate  between  the  yams  of  the  South  and  the  yellow  barks.  This 
was  brought  to  North  Carolina  many  years  ago  by  a  sea  captain  named 
Hayman,  from  Brazil ;  hence  the  name,  Hayman.  Years  ago  it  got  into  the 
hands  of  a  Northern  seedsman,  who  introduced  it  as  the  "Southern  Queen." 
It  is  one  of  the  most  productive  of  sweet  potatoes,  and  is  early  and  the  easiest 
of  all  to  keep  in  winter.  Hence  it  is  well  adapted  to  Northern  culture  as  it 
can  be  planted  there  late  in  June  and  make  a  crop.  Of  the  distinctively 
Southern  varieties  the  most  popular  are  the  "Pumpkin  Yam"  and  "Norton 
Yam,"  with  deep  pumpkin  colored  flesh ;  the  Barbadoes  in  two  varieties,  white 
and  yellow,  and  the  Jewell  yam,  of  a  yellow  color.  There  is  a  variety  known  as 
"Nigger  Choker,"  which  would  suit  the  Northern  taste.  It  is  a  deep,  pur- 
plish red  on  the  outside,  but  the  flesh  is  pure  white  and  very  dry,  and  hence 
not  popular  in  the  South.  The  most  productive  of  all  sweet  potatoes  is  the 
"Peabody."  This  grows  to  a  very  large  size  and  is  used  in  the  South  largely 
for  hog  feed,  on  account  of  its  productiveness.  It  is  too  dry  and  lacks  the 
sweetness  which  the  Southern  taste  demands,  and  is  only  eaten  here  when 
partly  grown,  because  it  reaches  a  table  size  earlier  than  others  and  is  salable 
till  better  potatoes  are  on  the  market.  There  are  many  other  sorts  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  South',  and  a  good  deal  has  been  said  of  late  about  the  vine- 
less  yam.  The  fact  is  that  there  are  a  number  of  vineless  sweet  potatoes, 
or  sorts  that  do  not  make  a  running  vine,  and  we  have  had  several  varieties 
to  sport  into  this  character  among  the  ordinary  sorts.  We  have  failed  to  see 
any  particular  advantage  in  the  vineless  sweet  potatoes. 


362— Crop  Growixg  asd  Crop  Feeding 

evaporating  sweet  potatoes. 

There  is  no  vegetable  grown  that  is  so  easily  and  rapidly  dried  as  the 
sweet  potato.  Cut  in  slices  and  evaporated  in  any  of  the  porta- 
ble evaporators,  they  can  be  kept  in  sacks  in  winter  without  diffi- 
culty, and  can  be  made  into  a  variety  of  dishes  and  puddings, 
after  being  soaked  over  night  to  restore  them;  or  they  can  be 
pulverized  and  used  for  the  many  nice  dishes  that  the  Southern  house- 
wife knows  so  well  how  to  prepare.  We  have  often  thought  that  if  some  one 
would  go  into  the  business  of  evaporating  and  pulverizing  the  sweet  potato, 
and  then  pack  them  in  neat  papers,  such  as  corn  starch  is  packed  in  the  Xorth, 
a  large  and  profitable  trade  could  be  established,  especially  if  the  packages 
gave  the  recipes  for  custards  and  pies  and  such  things  that  the  sweet  potato 
makes  so  perfectly.  There  is  a  great  opening  in  the  South  for  the  invest- 
ment of  capital  in  such  a  business,  for  the  potatoes  can  be  contracted  for  as 
cheaply  as  Irish  potatoes  are  contracted  for  at  the  starch  factories  in  Maine. 

YIELDS  OF  SWEET  POTATOES  FROM  LARGE  AND  SMALL  TUBERS. 

The  experiments  at  the  Texas  Station  show  that  the  sweet  potato  is  just 
apt  to  produce  large  crops  from  small  tubers,  or  rather  tuberous  roots,  as 
from  large  ones.  In  fact,  the  small  roots  gave  the  largest  yields.  Cuttings 
of  the  vines  set  in  June  were  usually  smoother  potatoes  than  those  raised  from 
the  spring  plants.  They  are  also  much  less  liable  to  disease,  and  hence  are 
better  for  the  seed  for  the  following  year.  Early  plants  are  set  for  the  pur- 
pose of  giving  cuttings  for  the  late  crop. 

The  Texas  Station  also  gives  the  following  results  from  the  application 
of  fertilizers  to  the  sweet  potato  crop : 
Plat  No.  Yield  bushels. 

1.  Nitrate  of  soda,  460  lbs 128.33 

2.  Muriate  of  potash,  150  lbs 146.47 

3.  Bone  black,  300  lbs 207.66 

4.  Sulphate  of  potash,  200  lbs 208.79 

5.  No   fertilizer 201.17 

6.  Cotton  seed  meal,  500  lbs 194.67 

7.  Barnyard  manure  and  wood  ashes,  20,000  lbs 179.85 

8.  Special  sweet  potato  fertilizer,  600  lbs 222.50 

9.  No  fertilizer    219.71 

10.  Nitrate  of  soda,  460  lbs.,  sulphate  of  potash,  200  lbs 166.87 

11.  Nitrate  of  soda,  460  lbs,  muriate  of  potash,  150  lbs 170.77 


Sweet  Potatoes — 263 

12.  Nitrate  of  soda,  460  lbs.,  bone  black,  300  lbs 208.76 

13.  Bone  black,  300  lbs.,  sulphate  of  potash,  200  lbs 255.50 

14.  Nitrate  of  soda,  460  lbs.,  bone  black,  300  lbs.,  and  sulphate  of 

potash,  200  lbs 173.36 

15.  No  fertilizer 170.58 

16.  Slaked  lime,   4,360   lbs 250.14 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  best  results  were  from  potassic  fertilizers  and 
phosphoric  acid.  Muriate  of  potash  lowered  the  yield,  and  nitrate  of  soda 
increased  it  but  once.  The  special  sweet  potato  fertilizer  contained  a  large 
percentage  of  phosphoric  acid.  The  analysis  of  this  fertilizer  was:  Total 
phosphoric  acid,  8.5  per  cent.;  potash,  1.93  per  cent.;  nitrogen,  0.80  per  cent. 

From  our  own  experience  in  the  fertilization  of  the  sweet  potato  we 
would  say  that  this  fertilizer  was  too  low  in  potash  for  the  best  results,  on  the 
average  sandy  soil  in  which  the  sweet  potato  is  grown  in  various  parts  of  the 
country.  It  will  be  found  that  the  sweet  potato  as  grown  in  New  Jersew 
will  bear  heavier  applications  of  nitrogen  than  it  will  in  the  South. 


CHAPTER  XXXVIII. 

TOMATOES. 

There  is  no  vegetable  crop  grown  that  has  so  increased  in  popularity 
in  the  past  forty  years  as  the  tomato.  The  writer  can  remember  when  in  the 
markets  in  the  city  of  Philadelphia  but  a  few  bushels  could  be  sold  on  each 
market  day,  and  canning  was  then  unknown  and  few  people  ate  the  fruit  at 
all.  Xow  the  use  of  the  tomato  has  grown  to  enormous  proportions,  and 
where  fifty  years  ago  a  peck  would  supply  a  market  stall,  it  would  take  many 
bushels  today.  In  many  sections  the  crop  has  grown  to  the  proportions  of  a 
farm  crop  and  extensive  fields  are  planted  for  the  supply  of  the  canning  es- 
tablishments in  all  parts  of  the  country.  Starting  in  the  winter  in  Cuba  and 
South  Florida,  the  tomato  is  a  staple  for  the  market  gardener  all  up  the 
coast  to  the  most  northern  point  where  they  can  be  ripened  in  the  open  air. 
And  not  only  in  the  open  air  is  the  crop  grown,  but  acres  and  acres  of  glass 
are  devoted  to  the  forcing  of  the  crop  in  winter,  when  the  superior  quality 
of  the  forced  fruit  finds  it  a  ready  sale  at  prices  far  above  that  of  the  inferior 
product  of  Cuba  and  Florida.  There  is  probably  more  capital  invested  in  the 
cultivation  of  the  tomato  in  the  open  ground  and  under  glass  than  any  other 
garden  crop.  Hence  the  varying  conditions  under  which  the  crop  is  produced 
should  have  careful  attention.  From  the  tender  nature  of  the  plant  and  its 
tropical  origin  it  might  be  supposed  that  it  would  be  more  successfully  grown 
in  the  South  than  North ;  but,  in  fact,  the  reverse  is  true.  The  crop  in  the 
South  is  never  so  large  per  acre  as  in  the  Middle  and  Northern  States.  The 
plants  are  there  subject  to  disease  to  a  greater  extent  than  in  the  North,  and 
the  early  crop  is  generally  suddenly  cut  short  by  the  access  of  drought  and 
extreme  heat  about  mid-summer,  so  that  while  the  South  can  produce  an 
early  crop,  and  can  produce  the  forced  winter  crop  more  cheaply  than  the 
North,  the  general  crop  for  canning  purposes  will  probably  be  always  mainly 
produced  in  the  Middle  States  ,  East  and  West.  While  farmers  in  Maryland 
can  grow  the  fruit  on  contract  for  the  canning  houses  at  $6  per  ton,  the  man 
in  North  Carolina  who  undertook  to  do  the  same  thing  (outside  the  mountain 

(264) 


Tomatoes — 265 

country)  would  not  make  the  cost  of  his  plunts.  We  write  this  to  show  that 
each  section  of  the  country  has  its  particular  season  and  crop  from  the 
tomato,  and  that  climatic  conditions  which  cannot  be  overcome,  determine 
to  what  extent  each  shall  grow  the  crop.  Manurial  requirements  also  vary  in 
the  different  sections.  The  amount  of  manure  and  fertilizers  that  the  crop 
absolutely  requires  in  the  South  would  be  a  disadvantage  in  its  growth  in  the 
canning  sections  of  Maryland. 

GROWING  THE  PLANTS. 

With  the  advancing  season  from  Florida  northward,  the  sowing  of 
tomato  seeds  is  done  at  different  times.  The  Florida  growers  who  depend 
mainly  on  the  advantage  of  their  climate,  sow  the  seeds  late  in  the  fall  and 
grow  the  crop  during  the  winter,  taking  some  risk  of  frost,  of  course.  As  we 
come  up  the  coast,  in  sections  where  frost  is  certain  and  sometimes  severe  in 
winter,  a  different  method  must  be  used,  and  the  only  real  difference  in  the 
plans  of  the  gardener  in  the  South  and  in  the  North  is  in  the  time  when  he 
sows  his  seed.  In  our  experience  there  is  nothing  gained  by  sowing  the  seeds 
earlier  than  ten  weeks  before  the  time  when  they  can  safely  be  transplanted 
to  the  open  ground.  Every  grower  will  know  when  this  is  in  his  locality, 
and  can  make  his  sowing  accordingly.  The  seed  can-be  sown,  of  course,  in  a 
manure  heated  hotbed  under  glass  sashes,  or  in  the  far  South  in  a  cold  frame, 
to  be  transplanted  as  soon  as  large  enough  to  handle  to  other  frames  to  develop 
size  and  to  harden  off  for  planting  outside.  But  we  find  that  when  the 
facilities  are  at  hand  a  greenhouse  is  the  best  place  for  the  sowing  of  the  seed, 
and  every  market  gardener  should  have  a  greenhouse  for  the  early  starting 
of  his  plants  of  various  kinds,  since  it  is  far  less  troublesome  and  far  less 
risky  than  a  hotbed.  We  find  that  here  we  can  set  properly  hardened  plants 
the  first  week  in  April.  Hence  we  sow  the  seeds  about  the  last  of  January 
in  shallow  boxes  or  flats  in  the  greenhouse,  where  a  night  temperature  of 
55  degrees  is  maintained.  They  are  sown  quite  thickly,  and  as  soon  as  large 
enough  to  handle  and  even  before  they  have  any  but  the  seed  leaves,  we  trans- 
plant them  to  other  boxes  about  an  inch  and  a  half  apart  and  set  them  down 
to  near  the  seed  leaf.  As  soon  as  they  begin  to  crowd  in  these  boxes,  they  are 
again  transplanted  into  other  boxes  about  two  and  a  half  inches  apart  By 
the  time  they  crowd  each  other  in  these  boxes  it  will  be  about  the  first  of 
IVrarch,  and  then  they  are  transplanted  to  the  cold  frames,  are  given  four 
inches  be  ween  the  plants,  and  are  set  quite  deeply  in  the  soil.  If  severe  frost 
comes,  the  frames  are  protected  by  mats,  but  the  plants  are  exposed  to  the  air 
at  every  favorable  time  until  finally  the  sashes  are  left  off  at  night  and  the 


266 — Crop  Gkowing  and  Crop  I^'eeding 

plants  fully  exposed  a  week  or  more  before  finally  transplanting.  We  find 
that  the  more  frequently  the  plants  are  transplanted  and  the  earlier  they  can 
be  gotten  out  to  stand,  the  earlier  the  crop.  Tomato  plants  that  are  properly 
hardened  off  before  transplanting  will  endure  a  slight  frost  without  injury. 
Once,  in  Northern  Maryland,  w^e  set  55,000  tomato  plants  in  the  open  ground 
the  last  of  April,  which  was  a  very  early  date  for  the  latitude,  above  39  de- 
grees. But  the  plants  were  large  and  stocky,  and  had  been  carefully  hard- 
ened off  in  the  frames.  In  the  early  part  of  M^y  we  had  a  white  frost  that 
covered  the  plants.  The  stems  turned  blue-black,  but  they  w^ere  not  hurt, 
and  the  result  of  this  risk  was  that  I  began  to  ship  tomatoes  the  last  week  in 
June,  or  nearly  three  weeks  ahead  of  the  gardeners  on  the  western  side  of  the 
Bay  in  the  same  latitude,  and  for  that  time  I  had  the  Baltimore  market  for 
nearby  tomatoes  all  to  myself.  Some  years  ago,  here  in  Xorth  Carolina,  we 
had  an  exceptionally  warm  March.  All  the  earlier  part  of  the  month  was 
characterized  by  hot,  summer-like  weather,  and  everything  got  to  growing  and 
the  trees  leaved  out.  Concluding  that  spring  was  here  to  stay,  I  set  tomatoes 
March  17th.  On  the  25th  the  Weather  Bureau  reported  frost  coming 
severely  that  night.  I  went  to  work  and  bent  each  plant  to  the  earth,  covered 
it  with  hay  and  then  piled  a  mound  of  soil  on  each  plant.  The  next  morn- 
ing the  mercury  stood  at  21  degrees  above  zero,  but  the  sun  soon  warmed 
things  up.  The  following  night  there  was  a  light  frost  and  the  next  day 
I  uncovered  my  tomatoes  and  found  them  all  unhurt,  and  the  crop  was  a  very 
early  one.  Setting  as  early  as  the  first  week  in  April  we  run  some  risk  of 
frost,  but  it  is  far  better  to  stand  ready  to  shovel  the  earth  over  them  than 
to  keep  them  inside  longer.  The  same  plan  can  be  made  available  in  the 
J^orth  at  a  later  period,  and  gardeners  everywhere  will  find  it  a  great  advant- 
age to  get  the  plants  in  the  open  ground  early,  provided  they  have  been  well 
luirdened  in  the  frames  where  they  were  spotted  out.  The  skill  of  the  gar- 
dener is  shown  in  getting  ahead  of  the  growers  around  him  and  getting  near- 
by tomatoes  on  the  market  in  competition  with  the  inferior  fruit  shipped 
from  the  South. 

FERTILIZING  THE  TOMATO  CROP. 

From  the  fact  that  the  tomato  in  old  and  rich  gardens  sometimes  grows 
so  rankly  as  to  be  an  inconvenience,  and  noting  the  occasional  pro- 
ductiveness of  volunteer  plants  that  come  in  the  corn  field  at  times,  there  has 
grown  up  a  notion  that  heavy  manuring  is  a  disadvantage  to  the  tomato.  An 
accurate  study  of  the  manurial  requirements  of  the  tomato  plant  at  the 
various  Experiment  Stations  has  demonstrated  the  fact  that  si)ecial  fertiliza- 


*     Tomatoes — 267 

tion  is  of  great  value  in  the  productiveness  and  the  early  maturity  of  the 
plant.  Prof.  Voorhees  recites  the  results  at  the  New  Jersey  Station  in  the 
use  of  nitrate  of  soda  as  a  special  fertilizer  for  the  tomatoes  grown  for  the 
early  crop,  and  that  the  results  showed  that  when  used  at  the  rate  of  160 
pounds  per  acre  at  one  application,  or  330  pounds  per  acre  at  two  applications, 
it  increased  the  yield  materially  and  not  at  the  expense  of  maturity,  and  this 
was  also  true  when  it  was  used  in  a  complete  fertilizer  mixture,  with  phos- 
phoric acid  and  potash.  But  when  the  whole  of  the  320  pounds  was  applied 
at  once  with  a  sufficient  proportion  of  phosphoric  acid  and  potash,  the  yield 
was  increased  at  the  expense  of  early  maturity.  It  was  found  that  nitrate 
of  soda  was  better  than  barnyard  manure  or  mineral  fertilizers  alone,  but 
when  used  alone  was  less  effective  than  when  a  component  part  of  a  com- 
plete fertilizer.  We  have  found,  here,  that  the  best  fertilizer  application  for 
the  tomato  crop  is  made  by  mixing  acid  phosphate,  900  pounds;  dried  blood, 
600  pounds,  nitrate  of  soda,  200  pounds,  and  high  grade  sulphate  of  potash, 
300  pounds,  to  make  a  ton.  Of  this  we  would  use  700  pounds  per  acre 
broadcast  before  setting  the  plants.  North  of  Virginia  we  would  reduce 
this  to  500  pounds  per  acre.  When  growth  is  well  under  way,  and  fruit  is 
setting,  we  find  it  an  advantage  here  to  give  a  further  dressing  of  nitrate  of 
soda  at  rate  of  100  pounds  per  acre.  On  land  that  had  been  heavily  manured 
the  previous  year  for  garden  crops,  or  on  which  a  crop  of  legumes  had  been 
grown  the  previous  season,  w^e  would  reduce  the  amount  of  the  dried  blood 
and  increase  the  amount  of  acid  phosphate  proportionately,  or  would  substi- 
tute cotton  seed  meal  for  the  dried  blood.  A  light,  mellow  loam  inclined  to 
sand  is  the  best  soil  for  the  early  tomato  crop,  and  it  is  useless  to  try  to  grow 
it  on  a  heavy  clay  or  a  cold  and  poor  soil. 

As  to  the  source  of  the  plant  foods  used,  the  nitrate  of  soda  and  the  dried 
blood  we  prefer  as  the  sources  of  nitrogen,  and  we  think  it  an  error  to  depend 
on  nitrate  alone  for  this  crop  if  a  continuous  growth  and  productiveness  is 
desired.  The  phosphoric  acid  can  be  supplied  by  superphosphate  made  from 
rock,  or  bone  black,  as  may  be  most  available  in  the  locality,  and  the  potash 
is  best  furnished  by  the  sulphate  free  from  chlorides.  In  any  crop  in  which 
sweetness  of  the  fruit  is  a  desirable  feature  we  have  found  the  sulphate  the 
best  form  in  which  to  use  potash.  If  it  is  desired  to  get  the  best  use  of  the 
nitrate  of  soda  it  would  probably  be  better  to  mix  the  other  constituents  and 
reserve  this  to  be  applied  alongside  the  plants  after  setting.  But  the  second 
application  of  the  nitrate  should  be  over  the  entire  surface,  since  by  that  time 
the  roots  are  running  far  and  wide.  Where  stable  manure  is  abundant  and 
cheap  we  would  greatly  prefer  here  to  plow  under  a  heavy  coat,  mix  it  well 
with  the  soil,  and  then  add  simply  the  phosphoric  acid  and  potash,  with  a 


268 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

light  dressing  of  50  pounds  per  acre  of  nitrate  of  soda  at  time  of  setting  the 
plants,  on  the  surface  around  them,  but  not  in  contact  with  the  roots.  No 
further  dreeing  will  be  needed  and  for  this  climate  this  is  far  better  than 
a  heavy  application  of  a  complete  commercial  fertilizer.  In  old  gardens  that 
have  been  manured  for  years  with  stable  manure,  we  would  use  no  nitrogenous 
fertilizer  whatever,  but  would  use  a  good  dressing  of  acid  phosphate  and 
potash,  say  400  pounds  of  acid  phosphate  and  100  pounds  of  sulphate  of 
potash  per  acre. 

We  would  note  that  in  the  South  the  organic  forms  of  nitrogen  in  a 
tomato  fertilizer  are  of  far  more  importance  than  in  the  North.  Otherwise, 
in  the  very  hot  weather  we  are  apt  to  have  in  June,  the  plants  will  fail  if  no 
nitrogen  but  that  from  the  nitrate  is  at  hand.  In  the  North  the  case  seems 
different,  and  it  is  found  undesirable  to  keep  up  too  much  growth  rather  than 
devote  the  whole  energy  of  the  plant  to  fruiting. 

THE  FIELD  CROP  OF  TOMATOES. 

This  crop  is  produced  for  the  canning  establishments,  and  earliness  is 
not  an  object.  The  plants  are  grown  in  beds  in  the  open  ground  and  trans- 
planted to  the  field  when  large  enough,  setting  them  in  rows  five  feet  apart 
and  four  feet  in  the  rows.  Cultivation  is  as  for  a  crop  of  corn.  The  same 
fertilizer  mixture  advised  for  the  early  crop  will  do  as  well  for  the 
canning  crop,  but  the  second  application  of  the  nitrate  of  soda  will  not  be 
needed  nor  profitable.  On  soil  that  will  make  a  good  crop  of  corn  500  pounds 
per  acre  of  the  mixture  will  be  ample.  We  have  found  that  for  this  summer 
crop  a  top'  dressing  of  stable  manure  between  the  rows  is  a  great  advantage 
in  our  dry  and  hot  summers,  as  a  mulch  as  well  as  plant  food.  Prof.  Vor- 
hees  shows  that  a  good  crop  of  ten  tons  of  tomatoes  per  acre,  with  their  vines, 
would  contain  57  pounds  of  nitrogen,  16  pounds  of  phosphoric  acid  and  94 
pounds  of  potash.  This  shows  very  well  the  relative  importance  of  the  differ- 
ent food  constituents,  and  that  nitrogen  and  potash  are  the  largest  part  of  the 
food  consumed  by  the  tomato. 

THE  SOUTHERN  BLIGHT. 

While  this  work  is  not  intended  to  take  up  plant  diseases,  which  would 
take  a  volume  for  the  proper  treatment,  we  must,  nevertheless,  say  a  few 
words  in  regard  to  this  terror  of  the  Southern  tomato  grower. 
There  is  more  than  one  blight  which  attacks  the  tomato,  but  the  one 
known  distinctively  as  the  "Southern  blight"  is  a  bacterial  growth  in  the  tis- 


Tomatoes— 269 

sues  of  the  plant,  and  the  first  intimation  of  its  presence  which  the  ordinary 
observer  has  is  the  sudden  wilting  of  a  large  plant  full  of  fruit.  If  the  wilted 
plant  is  allowed  to  remain,  the  disease  extends  to  others  till  the  whole  may 
be  destroyed.  It  is  the  great  bane  of  the  Southern  tomato  grower,  but  unfor- 
tunately no  sure  preventive  has  as  yet  been  discovered.  A  year  ago  we 
gave  a  piece  of  ground,  where  tomatoes  had  blighted  badly  the  year  before, 
a  dressing  of  lime  at  the  rate  of  about  30  bushels  per  acre,  and  set  it  again  in 
tomatoes.  There  was  little  or  no  blight  that  season.  This  year  we  set  the 
same  plat  in  tomatoes  without  any  further  liming;  every  plant  died  from 
blight.  So  it  would  seem  that  whatever  influence  the  lime  had  in  the  pre- 
vention of  the  blight  was  but  temporary.  Hence  the  only  advice  we  can  give 
is  to  avoid  land  where  tomatoes,  potatoes  or  watermelons  have  been  lately 
grown;  as  all  of  them,  with  the  egg  plant,  are  subject  to  the  same  disease. 
The  soil  gets  infected  and  any  remedy  that  is  to  be  effectual  must  deal  with 
the  soil.  Fresh  soil  from  the  forest  should  be  used  for  the  growing  of  the 
plants  for  the  infection  doubtless  takes  place  at  an  early  stage  of  the  growth 
of  the  plant. 

VARIETIES  OF  TOMATOES. 

These  are  now  so  numerous  that  the  inexperienced  planter  is  often  puz- 
zled to  know  what  sorts  will  be  best  for  him  to  plant.  The  tomato  yields 
so  readily  to  selection  and  breeding  that  the  varieties  do  not  long  retain  their 
original  character.  The  names  of  old  varieties  are  continued  on  the  lists  of 
seedsmen,  but  they  are  far  from  being  the  same  as  they  were  when  first  sent 
out.  One  man  forms  an  ideal  of  what  he  wants  in  a  tomato,  and  works  at 
it  till  he  gets  nearly  what  he  is  after,  and  the  tomato  is  put  into  commerce. 
Then  other  growers  go  to  work  to  produce  it  for  the  trade,  but  they  work  on 
entirely  different  ideals  from  the  originator,  and  the  variety  in  the  hands  of 
one  grower  is  still  further  improved,  and  under  the  treatment  of  another  is  al- 
lowed to  deteriorate;  but  both  are  sold  for  the  same  thing  year  after  year. 
The  Trophy  tomato,  for  which  we  paid  to  the  late  Col.  Waring  $5  for  twenty 
seeds,  is  still  on  the  seed  lists,  but  it  is  no  longer  the  Trophy  of  Col.  Waring ; 
some  stocks  have  run  back  while  others  have  been  selected  to  an  entirely  differ- 
ent type.  The  earliest  and  most  productive  tomato  we  have  ever  grown  is  the 
variety  known  as  Maule's  Earliest.  Its  fault  is  lack  of  smoothness,  especially 
in  the  earliest  specimens.  We  are  at  work  on  this  tomato,  and  hope  to  evolve 
from  it  a  tomato  with  a  smooth  skin  and  still  as  early  and  prolific  as  the 
present  type.  Fordhook  First  is  another  very  early  tomato  of  a  different 
type.     Atlantic  Prize  is  early  but  small  and  unproductive.     Early  Ruby  is 


270 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

very  early  but  is  also,  in  our  experience,  rough  and  a  poor  cropper.  For  the 
main  crop  and  for  canning  Livingston's  Beauty,  Matchless,  Crimson  Cush- 
ion, Stone  and  Queen  are  all  good. 

FORCING  TOMATOES  IN  WINTER. 

There  are  few  varieties  well  adapted  for  this  purpose.  The  one  known 
as  Lorillard  has  been  more  generally  used  than  any  other.  If  we  can  suc- 
ceed in  getting  a  smooth  type  of  Maule's  Earliest  it  will  leave  nothing  to 
be  desired  in  a  forcing  tomato.  Dwarf  Champion,  while  not  usually  recom- 
mended for  forcing,  has,  with  us,  always  beaten  Lorillard,  and  we  are  in- 
clined to  consider  it  one  of  the  best.  Tomatoes  for  forcing  are  sown  about 
the  last  of  August  for  the  first  crop.  We  sow  the  seed  in  the  open  ground  and 
transplant  them  there  once,  to  get  them  stocky.  They  are  potted  in  four- 
inch  pots  late  in  September  and  transferred  to  a  greenhouse  where  the  night 
temperature  is  not  over  55  degrees,  if  possible,  at  this  season.  They  are  kept 
close  to  the  glass  to  keep  them  stocky.  As  soon  as  the  balls  are  well  covered 
by  the  roots,  but  before  the  plants  got  "pot  bound"  or  stunted,  they  are  trans- 
ferred to  the  fruiting  pots.  We  always  grow  tomatoes  in  pots.  Some  use 
large  wooden  boxes  for  them,  and  some  plant  out  on  the  benches  in  soil  over 
the  hot  water  pipes.  If  the  crop  is  being  grown  commercially,  and  the  house 
is  a  narrow  lean-to  constructed  for  the  purpose,  the  planting  should  be  on  the 
benches,  in  a  bed  of  soil  and  the  vines  trained  on  wires  in  the  same  way  we 
train  grapes  under  glass.  But  in  a  span-roof  greenhouse,  where  the  glass  is 
used  lat^r  in  the  season  for  other  purposes,  the  pots  are  far  more  convenient 
and  for  the  one  crop  fully  as  good.  We  transfer  the  plants  from  the  four- 
inch  pots  to  those  of  ten-inch  size.  Arranging  for  drainage  at  the  bottom 
we  place  the  plant  near  the  bottom  of  the  pot  and  fill  around  with  soil  merely 
to  the  height  of  the  ball  turned  from  the  four-inch  pot.  Then,  as  soon  as 
the  white  roots  are  seen  running  into  the  fresh  soil,  another  inch  of  compost 
is  added,  and  so  on  till  the  pot  is  filled  enough.  This  gives  the  plant  a  very 
strong  root  system.  When  the  pot  is  well  filled  with  roots  we  give  dilute 
manure  water,  or  nitrate  of  soda  one  ounce  to  a  two  gallon  can  of  water,  week- 
ly. The  plants  are  trained  to  a  single  stem  and  all  side  growths  rigorously 
pinched  out.  When  placed  in  the  fruiting  pots  the  plants  are  put  into  a 
house  where  it  is  possible  to  maintain  70  degrees  at  night,  though  60  is  about 
the  usual  average.  As  soon  as  the  blossoms  set  we  go  over  the  house  daily 
at  noon  and  brush  the  pollen  on  the  stigmas  with  a  soft  cameFs  hair  brush. 
This  is  more  rapidly  done  and  is  far  more  effective  than  any  effort  to  collect 
pollen  in  a  spoon,  as  some  advise.     The  early  crop  should  begin  to  ripen  about 


Tomatoes— 271 

Christinas  and  will  continue  into  March.  If  the  house  is  to  be  used  for  toma- 
toes entirely,  atiother  crop  should  be  coming  on  to  take  the  place  of  those  that 
are  exhausted,  and  the  seed  for  this  is  sown  in  early  December,  and  will  make 
a  crop  to  follow  on  till  tomatoes  are  ripe  in  the  open  garden.  With  the 
proper  structures  for  the  purpose  the  winter  crop  of  tomatoes  can  be  made  a 
very  profitable  one,  as  we  have  sold  them  right  alongside  the  Florida  tomatoes 
for  25  cents  per  pound,  when  the  Floridas  were  selling  for  one-fourth  the 
money.  The  superior  quality  of  tomatoes  grown  under  glass  attracts  at- 
tention at  once. 

There  is  no  vegetable  plant  more  generally  forced  than  the  tomato  and 
none  that  has  been  more  uniformly  profitable  when  forced;  nor  is  there  any 
crop  grown  that  so  readily  responds  to  commercial  fertilizers.  We  have  had 
a  long  experience  in  growing  winter  tomatoes  and  much  prefer  to  use  commer- 
cial fertilizers  than  stable  manure  for  them.  In  fact,  the  only  real  failure 
we  ever  made  was  from  using  stable  manure  exclusively  in  our  compost,  and  a 
liquid  manure  of  cow  dung  instead  of  nitrate  of  soda.  We  got  a  tre- 
mendously rank  growth  but  a  very  poor  bloom  and  fruitage,  and  we  have  dis- 
carded manure  in  the  culture  of  tomatoes  under  glass.  If  the  potting  ma- 
terial known  as  jadoo  fibre  was  funished  more  cheaply  we  would  prefer  it 
to  any  soil  mixture  we  have  ever  tried;  but  the  commercial  grower  cannot 
afford  to  use  it  at  the  price  charged.  The  best  soil  is  made  from  sods  from 
a  mellow  loam  pasture,  piled  and  rotted  one  summer  in  advance  of  use,  and 
frequently  turned  till  it  is  perfectly  fine  and  homogeneous.  We  have  always 
had  better  success  with  plants  grown  in  ten  or  twelve-inch  pots  than  with 
those  planted  out  in  beds.  Wooden  boxes  may  be  substituted  for  the  pots 
if  desired.  We  sow  the  seeds  for  the  winter  crop  about  the  last  of  August, 
and  as  soon  as  large  enough  pot  them  into  three-inch  pots  and  set  them  in 
a  frame  where  they  can  be  watered  regularly.  As  they  fill  these  pots  they  are 
transferred  to  four-inch  pots  and  replaced  in  the  frame.  As  the  nights  get 
cool  we  take  the  plants  into  the  house  and  put  them  in  their  fruiting  pots. 
In  these  pots  we  use  plenty  of  broken  crocks  for  drainage  and  cover  the  drain- 
age with  moss  to  prevent  the  soil  choking  it.  The  large  pots  are  only  filled 
enough  to  cover  the  four-inch  balls  at  first,  and  as  the  roots  are  seen  on  the 
surface  of  the  soil  another  layer  is  added  until  finally  the  pot  is  sufficiently 
filled.  In  this  way  the  roots  get  complete  possession  of  the  soil.  I  should 
have  said  that  in  this  soil  we  use  a  liberal  mixture  of  raw  bone  meal,  which 
furnishes  nitrogen  and  phosphoric  acid  in  sufficient  quantity  to  keep  up  ^ 
fair  growth.  As  soon  as  the  plants  show  bloom  we  go  over  them  daily  at  ndoy 
and  apply  the  pollen  to  the  stigma  of  the  blossoms  with  a  cameFs  hair  brusj:. 
If  this  setting  of  the  flowers  is  neglected  there  will  be  little  perfect  frvt 


212 — Crop  Growixg  axd  Crop  Feeding 

and  what  there  is  will  be  small  and  seedless,  for  under  glass  there  are  no  in- 
sects to  do  this  for  us.  As  soon  as  the  roots  can  be  seen  to  have  taken  pos- 
session of  the  last  layer  of  soil  we  begin  to  use  liquid  fertilizer,  made  by  dis- 
solving one  ounce  of  nitrate  of  soda  in  a  two  gallon  can  of  water,  and  give 
this  once  a  week.  Do  not  begin  this  till  you  see  that  the  roots  have  possession 
of  the  soil,  for  there  is  otherwise  a  tendency  to  sour  the  soil.  The  plants  are 
kept  trained  to  a  single  stem  and  two  feet  square  is  allowed  to  each  plant. 
Daily  attention  is  needed  in  pinching  out  the  side  shoots  and  keeping  the 
plants  to  a  single  stem.  Pinch  these  out  as  soon  as  seen,  so  that  all  the 
strength  of  growth  will  be  thrown  into  the  main  stem.  The  stems  are  trained 
to  strings  or  wires  from  the  roof  above.  When  the  stems  have  reached  the 
height  of  the  house  the  ends  are  nipped  and  no  further  development  allowed. 
In  the  meantime,  about  the  middle  of  December,  sow  seed  for  a  succession 
crop  to  replace  these  as  the  crop  is  gathered.  These  succession  plants  can  be 
grown  on  the  side  benches  of  the  house  until  they  are  ready  to  take  their 
places  in  the  fruiting  pots.  The  tomato  house  should  be  kept  during  the  fall 
and  warm  weather,  well  ventilated,  and  when  the  nights  get  frosty  a  little 
fire  heat  is  given,  so  that  the  temperature  does  not  go  below  55  degrees.  As 
the  plants  get  into  bloom  the  temperature  of  the  house  should  never  be  allowed 
to  go  below  60  at  night  and  should  be  kept,  by  ventilation,  at  80  or  less  in  day 
time.  The  tomato  under  glass  is  subject  to  the  attacks  of  fungus  diseases, 
the  worst  being  the  Cladosporium  Fulvum,  which  attacks  the  leaves,  begin- 
ning on  the  lower  leaves,  and  if  not  checked  will  defoliate  the  entire  house. 
We  manage  to  keep  clear  of  it  by  painting  the  hot  water  pipes  at  times  with  a 
solution  of  the  sulphide  of  potassium,  and  by  keeping  sulphur  scattered  around 
under  the  leaves  in  the  sun,  so  that  it  gradually  evaporates  in  the  air.  These 
precautions  should  precede  any  attack,  for  if  the  fungus  once  gets  started  it 
is  hard  to  stop. 

Some  recent  experiments  have  shown  that  when  the  tomato  plants  are 
planted  in  pure  coal  ashes  and  supplied  with  the  proper  fertilizers  the  result- 
ing crop  has  been  better  than  when  grown  in  the  most  carefully  prepared 
compost.  Whether  this  will  be  true  in  all  cases  or  not  we  cannot  say,  but 
there  seems  to  be  a  sort  of  affinity  between  coal  ashes  and  tomato  plants,  for 
the  most  wonderfully  prolific  and  long  lived  tomato  plant  we  ever  saw  grew 
in  an  .old  heap  of  coal  ashes,  where  it  started  as  a  volunteer  and  was  allowed 
to  remain.  While  coal  ashes  have  little  of  what  is  classed  as  plant  food  in 
them  they  do  certainly  assist  in  the  mellowing  of  the  soil  and  the  retention  of 
loisture.  We  have  greatly  improved  a  piece  of  stiff  clay  soil  by  heavy  dress- 
es of  coal  ashes,  and  nowadays  we  never  throw  them  away,  but  always  find 

^for  them.      One  of  the  most  valuable  uses  for  coal  ashes  is  for  plunging 

poll. 


Tomatoes— 273 

plants  in  pots  in  the  cold  frames.  A  bed  of  coal  ashes  makes  the  best  place 
in  which  to  plunge  pots  to  save  watering  and  to  protect  them  from  frost. 
Pots  set  upon  the  ground  soon  get  filled  with  earth  worms  to  the  detriment 
of  the  plants,  but  when  set  on  coal  ashes  or  plunged  in  them  the  worms  have 
no  chance,  for  they  will  not  crawl  through  the  ashes.  Then,  too,  there  is  no 
inducement  for  the  roots  to  run  out  through  the  hole  in  the  bottom  of  the 
])ots,  as  when  they  are  placed  on  soil,  and  if  any  do  get  out  they  are  easily 
removed  from  the  ashes  entire.  Coal  ashes  applied  to  a  sandy  soil  will  make 
it  more  retentive  of  moisture  and  less  inclined  to  be  leachy. 

THE  FORCING  HOUSE  FOR  TOMATOES. 

For  the  purpose  of  winter  forcing  tomatoes  we  prefer  a  full  even-span 
house  twenty  feet  wide,  with  a  space  in  the  centre  for  setting  the  boxes  of  pots, 
and  benches  on  the  sides  that  can  be  used  for  the  forcing  of  beans  or  other 
dwarf er  growing  plants,  that  need  about  the  same  temperature  as  the  toma- 
toes ;  or  for  bringing  on  the  second  crop  for  the  replanting  of  the  house.  The 
house  should  be  not  less  than  ten  feet  to  the  ridge  in  the  centre,  the  glass 
ir^hould  have  a  slope  of  45  degrees,  and  the  house  should  run  north  and  south 
so  that  both  sides  will  have  sun  at  different  times  of  the  day.  A  narrow  lean- 
to  house  may  be  used  and  the  plants  set  on  the  front  bench  and  trained  on 
wires  under  the  glass,  as  we  do  grapes,  but  in  this  case  the  slope  of  glass 
should  be  to  the  south.  In  a  very  narrow  house  of  this  kind,  with  the  glass 
a  steep  incline  to  the  south,  the  crop  may  perhaps  be  earlier  in  setting  and 
the  house  more  easily  heated  than  in  the  span-roof  house,  and  the  second 
crop  may  be  started  against  the  back  wall  and  get  the  sunlight  after  the  front 
vines  have  been  taken  out;  but  we  greatly  prefer  the  span-roof  house.  In 
such  a  house,  with  each  plant  trained  to  a  single  stem  and  allowed  two  feet 
square  of  space,  there  should  be,  during  the  winter,  a  crop  of  two  pounds  for 
every  square  foot  of  space  in  the  house.  The  crop  here  usually  commands 
25  cents  per  pound 'in  winter,  hence  a  house  with  1,000  square  feet  of  surface 
should  produce  2,000  pounds  of  fruit,  worth  $500.  Whether  such  a  crop 
will  be  profitable  or  not  will  depend  on  the  cost  of  heating  the  house,  and  here 
the  Southern  forcer  will  have  a  great  advantage  over  the  grower  in  the  colder 
flections,  in  the  fact  that  he  needs  to  use  less  coal  and  has  far  more  sunlight 
in  winter,  and  sunlight  counts  for  far  more  under  glass  than  does  fire  heat. 

It  is  probable  that  the  best  style  of  house,  though  we  have  never  tried  it 
for  the  tomato,  would  be  that  known  generally  as  the  Rose  house,  because  it 
is  the  form  generally  adopted  for  the  winter  forcing  of  roses  for  cutting  in 
winter.     The  shape  of  such  a  house  is  what  is  called  three-quarters  span ;  that 


274 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

is,  there  is  a  high  back  wall  and  a  low  front  one,  a  short  slope  of  glass  on  the 
back  and  twice  as  long  a  slope  in  front.  Then  if  the  benches  are  made  at 
different  heights  the  plants  can  be  brought  to  uniform  distance  from  the 
glass  and  all  have  an  equal  chance  at  the  sunlight.  Prof.  Bailey  says  that 
he  prefers  to  grow  tomatoes  on  the  side  benches  in  7  or  8  inches  of  soil  and  on 
benches,  too,  in  the  centre  of  the  house.  Our  objection  to  this  would  be  that 
the  tomatoes  on  the  side  benches  would  too  much  shade  those  in  the  centre. 

While  in  all  the  earlier  stages  of  the  growth  of  the  plants  the  house 
should  be  kept  moist,  very  great  care  is  needed  in  the  watering  of  the  plants. 
We  keep  the  walks  damp  at  all  times  and  water  the  pots  only  when  needed, 
having  no  set  time  to  do  this,  but  varying  with  the  state  of  the  weather  and 
the  amount  of  sunshine.  A  slight  thump  on  the  side  of  a  pot  will  tell  if 
water  is  needed  even  when  it  looks  moist  on  the  surface.  If  the  pot  sounds 
hollow  water  should  be  given,  if  not,  none.  Moisture  is  maintained  by  water- 
ing the  sand  on  the  benches  where  the  pots  stand,  and  watering  the  walks, 
but  sprinkling  overhead  on  the  plants  is  never  done.  Various  plans  have 
been  proposed  for  the  pollenation  of  the  flowers,  such  as  shaking  off  the 
pollen  in  a  spoon  or  watch  glass,  but  we  have  never  succeeded  in  this,  and  find 
no  difficulty  in  rapidly  setting  the  flowers  with  a  cameFs  hair  brush.  Prof. 
Bailey  says  that  all  varieties  of  tomatoes  are  more  inclined  to  be  irregular 
in  shape  under  glass  than  in  the  open  ground.  We  have  found  the  very  re- 
verse of  this  to  be  the  case.  They  always,  for  us,  grew  more  smooth  and  per- 
fect under  glass  than  out  doors.  Perhaps  the  difference  is  climatic  and  due 
to  our  abounding  sunshine,  even  in  the  coldest  weather.  He,  too,  claims 
that  the  Dwarf  Champion  is  the  least  satisfactory  under  glass,  while  here  it 
has  always  been  one  of  the  best,  while  the  Lorillard,  which  is  claimed  in  the 
North  to  be  a  special  forcing  variety,  is  an  utter  failure  here  every  time  it 
has  been  tried ;  the  poorest  crop  we  have  ever  had  was  with  this  variety. 

Forced  tomatoes  are  marketed  in  baskets  similar  to  those  used  by  the 
Florida  shippers,  and  packed  in  what  are  known  as  Southern  carriers.  Each 
fruit  should  be  wrapped  in  soft  tissue  paper,  and  the  baskets  lined  with  white 
paper,  and  with  some  clean  excelsior  shavings  under  the  fruit  to  prevent 
jarring  in  transportation. 

COMMERCIAL  FERTILIZERS  IN  TOMATO  FORCING. 

Our  own  experience  in  the  winter  forcing  of  tomatoes  has  led  us  to  prefer 
chemical  fertilizers  to  stable  manure.  On  this  point  we  are  glad  to  refer  to 
the  work  done  at  the  Connecticut  Experiment  Station  as  detailed  in  their 
report  for  the  year  1895.     "To  those  who  are  raising  or  contemplating  rais- 


Tomatoes — 275 

ing  winter  crops  under  glass,  the  question  of  substituting  fertilizers  for  ma- 
nure, in  part  at  least,  is  a  very  important  one.  Forcing  house  soil  as  usually 
prepared,  consists  of  rich  garden  soil  or  rotted  turf,  composted  with  from 
one-fourth  to  one-half  its  bulk  of  horse  manure.  Aside  from  the  labor  of 
hauling  and  repeatedly  working  over  this  material  to  secure  the  fine  mellow 
condition  which  is  desired,  the  cost  formerly  was  not  great.  But  the  in- 
troduction of  electric  cars  enormously  cut  down  the  production  of  horse 
manure  in  the  cities,  which  has  been  the  main  dependence  of  our  market 
gardeners.  In  consequence,  the  preparation  of  suitable  soil  for  forcing 
houses  is  increasingly  expensive.  Besides  this  it  is  found  that  even  a  rich 
natural  soil  cannot  carry  forcing  house  tomatoes  to  their  highest  productive- 
ness, and  therefore  liquid  manure  is  often  used  to  water  the  soil  after  the 
plants  have  come  into  bearing.  The  admirable  work  on  the  use  of  commercial 
fertilizers  on  field  tomatoes,  done  at  the  New  Jersey  Station,  has  proved  that 
the  ripening  of  the  crop  may  be  very  materially  hastened  by  the  proper  use 
of  fertilizer  chemicals,  especially  of  nitrate  of  soda. 

To  hasten  the  ripening  of  crops  under  glass,  where  the  expense  of  growing 
them  is  so  much  greater  than  in  the  field,  must  greatly  increase  the  profits 
of  the  business.  A  further  question  also  connected  with  these,  is,  whether 
the  humus  of  rotted  manure,  generally  regarded  as  necessary  to  regulate  the 
storage  and  circulation  of  moisture  in  the  soil  under  natural  conditions,  can 
be  replaced  by  some  cheap  substitute,  or  dispensed  with  altogether  in  forcing- 
house  culture,  where  the  supply  of  soil  moisture  can  be  well  regulated  by 
artificial  means. 

"Our  first  endeavor  was  to  find  out  how  much  nitrogen  tomato  plants 
raised  under  glass  take  from  the  soil,  in  their  fruit  and  vines,  and 
how  much  nitrogen  needs  to  be  in  the  soil  to  meet  fully  this  demand  of  the 
plants.  These  questions  we  studied  by  raising  tomatoes  on  the  forcing- 
house  bench  filled  with  soil  known  to  be  practically  free  from  available  nitro- 
gen, but  believed  to  contain  all  other  ingredients  necessary  for  a  maximum 
tomato  crop.  To  these  plats  were  added  known  quantities  of  nitrogen  in  the 
form  of  nitrate  of  soda.  The  weight  of  the  fruit  harvested,  and  of  the  vines 
which  bore  it,  with  the  chemical  analysis  of  both,  furnish  the  means  of  deter- 
mining how  much  nitrogen,  phosphoric  acid  and  potash  a  crop  of  tomatoes 
takes  from  the  soil.  Comparison  of  the  quantities  of  nitrogen  applied  to  the 
several  plats,  with  the  weights  of  the  crops  and  of  their  nitrogen,  gives  some 
indication  of  the  amount  of  nitrogen  necessary  to  apply  in  order  to  secure 
a  maximum  crop."  The  house  used  in  the  experiments  was  specially  con- 
structed and  was  a  three-quarter-span-roof  house,  16x40  feet  running  east 
and  west,  with  a  partition  across  the  centre,  making  two  apartments.     The 


276 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

house  is  heated  by  steam  from  a  boiler  that  heats  all  the  Station  buildings 
with  a  pressure  of  five  pounds  The  steam  enters  the  house,  passes  over- 
head to  the  further  end  and  then  returns  in  pipes  under  the  benches.  Venti- 
lation is  by  a  continuous  line  of  ventilating  sashes  along  the  south  side, 
hinged  at  the  top.  Xorth  and  south  walls  are  both  solid  (without  glass). 
The  front  wall  is  twenty-one  inches  above  the  top  of  the  bench,  and  the  back 
wall  thirty-eight  inches. 

The  experiments  were  made  on  the  centre  bench  of  the  house  at  the  east 
end  section.  This  bench  is  nine  inches  deep,  with  a  bottom  of  six  inch  boards 
laid  three-fourths  of  an  inch  apart  for  drainage,  the  cracks  being  covered 
with  coarse  peat  so  that  none  of  the  soil  could  escape.  Five  plats  were  made, 
each  three  feet  six  and  one-half  inches  l)y  three  feet  eleven  inches,  having  an 
area  of  13.87  square  feet.  The  soil  was  filled  in  to  the  depth  of  eight  inches, 
leaving  room  for  settling  after  watering,  and  six  plants  were  set  in  each  plat. 
"The  soil  for  each  plat  was  separately  mixed,  as  follows:  300  pounds  of 
anthracite  coal  ashes,  sifted  to  pass  a  wire  screen  with  four  meshes  to  the 
inch,  were  spread  on  a  cement  floor,  and  9  pounds  of  peat  moss,  such  as  is 
sold  in  the  cities  for  stable  bedding,  screened  like  the  ashes,  were  scattered 
over  them.  To  these  were  added  three  and  a  half  ounces  of  precipitated 
carbonate  of  lime,  to  neutralize  a  slight  acidity  of  the  peat  and  give  to  the 
whole  a  mild  alkaline  reaction.  These  materials  were  shoveled  over  twice 
carefully  and  then  spread  as  before. 

"The  fertilizers  designed  for  the  plat  were  sprinkled  over  this  mixture 
and  the  whole  carefully  shovelled  over  twice  again,  to  secure  as  perfect  a  mix- 
ture as  possible  of  fertilizers  and  soil,  and  then  carried  in  a  hand  barrow  to 
the  designated  plat  in  the  forcing  house. 

"The  north  bench  in  the  same  division  of  the  house  was  filled  with  a  rich 
soil  prepared  by  composting  good  thick  turf  with  one-third  its  bulk  of  stable 
manure.  Plants  were  set  in  this  bench  mainly  to  make  a  rough  comparison 
between  crops  grown  on  the  two  radically  different  soils.  The  exposure  of  the 
two  benches  is  slightly  different,  that  of  the  north  bench  being,  perhaps,  some- 
what less  favorable  as  regards  light. 

"Three  varieties  were  used:  Ignotum,  x\cme  and  Dwarf  Champion,  two 
plants  of  each  variety  being  set  in  each  plat,  and  all  receiving  the  same  treat- 
ment. The  method  of  training  adopted  was  the  single  stem  system,  which 
has  been  successfully  used  at  the  Xew  York  Cornell  Station.  By  this  system 
plants  can  be  set  closer,  and  while  the  yield  may  be  much  less  per  plant  than 
under  other  systems  of  training,  it  is  as  large  or  larger  per  square  foot  of 
bench  area  devoted  to  the  crop.  The  plants  blossomed  soon  after  setting. 
The  first  pollenating  was  done  January  5th.     Pollenation  was  effected  by 


Tomatoes — 277 

holding  a  spoon  directly  under  each  flower  and  gently  tapping  the  upper  part 
of  the  blossom  with  a  pencil  or  small  stick.  Pollen  is  thus  shaken  into  the 
spoon  and  at  the  same  time  the  stigma  is  driven  into  the  mass  of  loose  pollen 
in  the  bottom  of  the  spoon.  The  stigmatic  surface  which  is  on  the  end  of  the 
style  is  thus  coated  with  pollen,  and  as  flower  after  flower  is  visited  on  many 
different  plants,  cross  fertilization  is  insured.  Flowers  were  poUenated  about 
every  other  day  throughout  the  blossoming  period.^' 

All  the  plants  grew  finely  for  a  while,  though  as  early  as  the  8th  of  Janu- 
ary there  was  observed  a  slight  difference  in  the  color  of  the  plants  in  the  plat 
which  had  received  no  nitrate  of  soda,  and  this  difference  of  a  lighter  color 
increased  during  the  season.  First  ripe  fruit  was  on  the  27th  of  February, 
being  three  Ignotums  in  one  plat  and  one  in  another,  both  of  the  artificial  soil, 
and  two  Ignotums  and  three  Acmes  from  the  natural  soil.  Temperature 
ranged  from  60  to  G5  degrees  at  night  and  often  on  warm  sunny  days  85  to 
90  degrees  Fahrenheit. 

The  following  summary  is  given  of  the  results : 

1.  A  forcing-house  tomato  crop  yielding  about  two  pounds  of  fruit  for 
each  square  foot  of  bench  room,  takes  in  the  vines  and  fruit,  for  every  hun- 
dred square  feet  of  bench  space,  not  less  than: 


Grams.  ^  Lbs.    Ozb. 

Phosphoric  acid 65  y  equivalent  to  \  Dissolved  bone  black. .  13 


Nitrogen 168  -j  r  Nitrate  of  soda 2       5 

Potash S62  )  i  Muriate  of  potash 1        9 


Of  this  from  a  fourth  to  a  fifth  only  is  in  the  vines. 

2.  To  enable  the  plants  to  get  these  fertilizer  elements  as  required,  there 
should  be  a  large  excess  of  them  in  the  soil,  perhaps  double  the  quantity  given 
above. 

3.  Every  100  pounds  of  tomato  fruit  takes  from  the  soil  approximately : 


Ounces  Ounces 

Nitrogen 2.2  ^  r  Nitrate  of  soda 14 

Phosphoric  acid 9  >  equivalent  to       <  Dissolved  bone  black. . .     5 

Potash     4.6  i  i  Muriate  of  potash 10 


4.  It  is  possible  to  grow  a  crop  of  forcing-house  tomatoes,  amounting  to 
two  or  more  pounds  per  square  foot  of  bench  space,  perfectly  normal  in  size 
color,  taste  and  chemical  composition,  by  the  aid  of  commercial  fertilizers 
alone,  and  in  soil  composed  of  coal  ashes  and  peat. 

In  a  further  discussion  of  the  subject  the  Connecticut  report  says  that 
they  are  not  ready  from  one  experiment  to  recommend  a  departure  from 


278 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

present  methods,  but  they  feel  justified  in  calling  attention  to  certain  appar- 
ent advantages  of  the  artificial  soil  for  forcing  purposes. 

For  every  100  square  feet  of  bench  space  there  will  be  required  2,200 
pounds  sifted  ashes  and  63  pounds  of  dried  peat  or  leaf  mold  to  fill  the  bench 
8  inches  deep,  and  experiments  may  show  that  the  peat  is  not  necessary  About 
10  pounds  of  commercial  fertilizers  are  needed  for  this  much  bench  space,  cost- 
ing at  present  ton  rates  less  than  21  cents.  In  very  many  cases,  then,  the 
cost  of  filling  the  benches  with  the  artificial  soil  will  be  very  much  less  than 
the  cost  of  filling  them  with  rich  garden  soil  or  compost.  The  tomato  plants 
grown  in  natural  soil  made  much  slower  growth  and  were  slower  in  fruiting 
than  those  in  artificial  soil  supplied  with  nitrates.  Another  consideration  is 
the  freedom  from  insects  and  fungi  in  the  ashes,  which  constitute  97  per 
cent,  of  the  bulk  of  the  artificial  soil,  and  even  the  peat  which  is  hardly 
needed,  is  not  so  apt  to  convey  these  as  the  rich  garden  soil.  It  was  found 
that  there  was  a  special  freedom  from  the  nematode  worms  which  cause  root 
galls  on  plants.  The  rich  garden  soil  becomes  so  infested  with  these  that  it 
cannot  be  used  for  tomatoes  more  than  one  season.  In  the  artificial  soil 
no  nematodes  were  found  beyond  the  ball  of  earth  set  with  the  plants,  but  they 
were  very  abundant  in  the  natural  soil. 

We  have  given  such  full  space  to  the  tomato  because,  for  both  culture  in 
the  open  ground  and  under  glass,  it  is  about  the  most  important  of  our  vege- 
table crops.  It  will  readily  be  seen  from  the  experiments  of  the  Connecticut 
Experiment  Station,  which  we  have  given  in  detail,  that  the  manurial  re- 
quirements of  the  tomato  are  mainly  for  nitrogen  and  potash,  and  it  may  be 
remarked  that  this  is  the  case  with  a  large  proportion  of  our  garden  crops, 
few  of  which,  if  we  except  the  cruciferous  family,  the  cabbage  and  its  allies, 
require  such  a  large  percentage  of  phosphoric  acid  as  is  usually  found  in  the 
various  brands  of  fertilizers  sold  ready  mixed  on  the  market. 

SHALL  TOMATOES  IN  THE  OPEN   GROUND  BE  PRUNED? 

We  have  made  a  number  of  experiments  in  the  pruning  and  training  of 
tomatoes.  In  the  house,  before  the  plants  go  into  the  frames,  we  do  not  hesi- 
tate to  top  them  if  they  threaten  to  get  too  tall,  but  we  had  rather  not  do 
this,  and  would  try  to  keep  them  growing  slower.  In  the  open  ground  there 
have  been  numberless  contrivances  invented  for  the  support  of  the  plants, 
and  we  have  tried  different  methods  of  training  and  pruning.  The  conclus- 
ions we  have  arrived  at  are  these :  When  tomatoes  are  grown  on  a  large  scale 
for  market  it  will  not  pay  to  prune  thorn  or  to  make  any  effort  to  support 
them.     The  rot  is  not  caused  by  the  tomatoes  touching  the  ground,  but  from 


Tomatoes— 279 

the  attacks  of  a  specific  fungus  disease,  and  if  we  ward  off  the  attacks  of  dis- 
ease, there  will  be  no  rot,  even  though  the  fruit  may  rest  on  the  ground.  I 
have  often  gathered  the  finest  of  tomatoes  half  buried  in  the  soil.  Begin  the 
spraying  with  Bordeaux  mixture  as  soon  as  the  tomatoes  are  set,  keep  it 
up  at  intervals  till  the  fruit  is  half  grown,  and  there  will  be  less  rot  than  if 
they  are  trained  off  the  ground  and  no  spraying  done.  It  is  an  advantage, 
of  course,  in  small  gardens  where  space  is  scanty,  to  plant  close  like  we  do  in 
the  forcing-house  and  train  to  single  stems  supported  by  stakes,  and  in  this 
way  a  larger  crop  may  perhaps  be  gathered  from  a  limited  space  by  the  use 
of  more  plants.  Where  a  support  is  used  the  best  thing  we  have  ever  tried 
for  the  support  of  anything  in  the  garden  needing  it,  is  the  wire  poultry  net- 
ting, now  sold  in  various  widths  so  that  it  can  be  adapted  to  plants  of  various 
heights.  Stretched  to  stakes  along  the  row  the  tomato  plants  can  be  pruned 
to  a  single  stem  and  set  two  feet  apart  in  the  row,  there  is  always  a  point  to 
tie  to,  and  the  leaves,  growing  through  the  meshes  will  of  themselves  aid  in 
the  support  of  the  plant.  While  in  the  North  it  is  perfectly  practicable  to 
carry  the  early  forwarded  plants  through  the  whole  season  it  is  not  so  in  the 
South,  for  the  early  plants  of  the  garden  are  usually  either  checked  badly  or 
killed  by  the  heat  and  drought  we  usually  have  about  the  last 
of  June.  If  we  then  do  not  have  a  supply  of  fresh  plants 
coming  on  from  seed  sown  in  the  open  ground  in  April,  there 
is  apt  to  be  a  cessation  of  tomatoes;  so  we  always  try  to  provide 
this  set  of  plants,  and  these,  too,  will  usually  fail  by  the  late  fall ;  hence  we 
have  adopted  the  plan  of  sowing  seed  for  a  third  crop  about  the  first  of  June. 
These  plants  get  the  advantage  of  the  rainy  season  we  usually  have  during 
July  and  August,  get  into  full  fruiting  in  the  fall,  and  are  generally  full  of 
green  fruit  when  frost  comes.  We  usually  get  more  tomatoes  from  these 
plants  than  from  either  of  the  other  sowings,  for  when  the  frost  comes  we 
gather  all  the  green  tomatoes  and  wrap  them  singly  in  paper  and  pack  in 
boxes  and  place  in  a  room  where  they  will  be  kept  cool  but  clear  of  frost. 
Then  a  few  are  taken  out  from  time  to  time  and  placed  in  a  warm  room, 
where  they  soon  color  up  and  are  ready  for  the  table.  In  this  way  we  are  able 
to  keep  up  a  regular  supply  of  tomatoes  for  slicing,  till  the  forced  tomatoes 
of  the  hothouse  are  ready  in  January.  On  a  large  scale  we  are  sure  that 
this  late  crop  might  be  made  a  valuable  one  in  the  South,  as  the  fruit  can  be 
had  in  good  condition  for  shipping,  and  better  than  the  Florida  crop,  about 
the  Christmas  holidays  when  they  will  bring  a  good  price.  One  would  sup- 
pose from  the  tropical  nature  of  the  plant  that  tKe  tomato  would  be  a  more 
successful  crop  in  the  open  ground  in  the  South  than  in  the  North,  but,  as 
we  have  shown,  the  difficulties  in  the  growing  of  the  crop  increase  as  we  come 


280 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

southward,  and  the  quality  of  the  product  in  the  open  air  is  not  equal  to 
that  of  the  Northern  crop.  But  in  the  forcing-house  we  have  a  great  advant- 
age over  the  Northern  grower,  and  we  have  treated  of  this  part  of  the  subject 
fully  because  we  believe  that  winter  forcing  in  the  Upper  South  is  destined  to 
become  a  great  interest. 

FURTHER  REPORTS  ON   CHEMICAL   FERTILIZERS   IN   FORCING  TOMATOES. 

In  the  report  of  the  Connecticut  Station  for  1899  we  find  the  following 
statements.  In  the  season  of  1897-8  two  crops  of  tomatoes  were  forced,  and  the 
compost  and  coal-ash  beds  were  made  to  alternate  with  each  other  through 
the  house.  To  each  plat  of  coal  ashes  and  peat  were  added  411.64  grams  of 
nitrate  of  soda,  700  grams  cotton  seed  meal,  141.36  grams  dissolved  bone 
black,  and  215  grams  of  muriate  of  potash.  For  the  second  crop  the  amounts  of 
these  removed  by  the  first  crop  were  added.  The  application  was  too  heavy 
and  the  plants  were  injured  by  it.  In  1898-9  nitrogen  was  furnished  to  the 
plats  of  coal  ashes  and  peat  with  same  materials  and  also  with  bone  meal. 
The  yield  from  the  plats  dressed  with  bone  was  below  that  of  the  others. 
The  soil  of  coal  ashes  and  peat  made  a  heavier  yield  of  tomatoes  than  the  pot- 
ting compost,  and  the  same  result  was  found  in  all  the  crops. 


CHAPTER  XXXIX. 

SOME  SPECIAL  FORMULAS  FOR  TRUCK  CROPS. 

The  following  special  formulas  have  been  proposed  by  the  North  Caro- 
lina Agricultural  Experiment  Station  for  the  various  crops  grown  by  the 
nuirket  gardener. 


FOR  CELERY. 


(2) 


Pounds. 

Nitrate  of  soda 300 

Fish  scrap 800 

Acid  i)hosphate =   .     600 

Muriate  of  potash 300 

Nitrate  of  soda 250 

Dried  blood .  600 

Acid  phospate . . .   850 

Muriate  of  potash 300 


Per  cent. 

!  Ammonia    6.9 

Available  phosphoric  acid. . .  5.5 

Potash    8.0 

!  Ammonia 7.2 

Available  phosphoric  acid. ...  5.5 

Potash 7.0 


FOR   llflSII   POTATOES. 


(1)  Nitrate  of  soda    300 

Cotton  seed  meal    600 

Bone  blacfe:  superphos.     . .  800 

Muriate  of  potash 300 

(2)  Nitrate  of  soda    300 

Fish  scrap '. 600 

Acid  phosphate 800 

Muriate  of  potash 300 

(8)   Nitrate  of  soda 200 ' 

Fish  scrap 900 

Bone  black  superphos.  . . .  600 

Muriate  of  potash 300 

(4)   Nitrate  of  soda 220 

Dried  blood 500 

Acid  phosphate 970 

Muriate  of  potash 310 


{Ammonia     5.4 

Available  phosphoric  acid....  7.2 

Potash    8.1 

f  Ammonia    5. 1 

Available  phosphoric  acid  ....  6.8 

Potash 7.8 


Ammonia    6.4 

yielding  \  Available  phosphoric  acid  .. .  6.6 
Potash 7.8 


{Ammonia  6.1 
Available  phosphoric  acid. . . .  6.8 
Potash 8.0 


(281) 


282 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 


Pounds. 

(5)  Nitrate  of  soda      ,    ,  300  ^ 

Cotton  seed  meal    600  (^ 

Acid  phosphate    8(X)  ( 

Muriate  of  potash  ....     310 .' 

(6)  Nitrate  of  soda 300  ^ 

Tankage 600  ( 

Acid  phosphate 800  ( 

Sulphate  potash  H.  G.       .  300  J 


yielding 


yielding 


Per  cent. 

Ammon  ia  5.4 

Available  phosphoric  acid 6.0 

Potash 8.3 

Ammonia     5.5 

Available  phosphoric  acid 6.4 

Potash      , . , , .    . 7.8 


This  last  will  be  best  for  the  Northern  sections  of  the  country,  where  the 
starch  content  of  the  crop  is  a  matter  of  importance,  as  the  sulphate  of  potash 
makes  a  more  dry  and  starchy  potato  than  the  muriate,,  but  the  muriate  gives 
the  heavier  crop  in  the  South. 


FORMrLAS  FOR  BEETS  AND  LETTUCE. 


(1)  Nitrate  of  soda    300 

Cotton  seed  meal    800 

Acid  phosphate 600 

Muriate  of  potash 300 

(2)  Nitrate  of  soda    ...   200 

Fish  scrap 800 

Acid  phosphate 700 

Muriate  of  potash 300  - 


(Ammonia  ,  6.2 
Available  phosphoric  acid. . .  4.9 
Potash    8.5 

{Ammonia  .  , .  5.9 
Available  phosphoric  acid 5.4 
Potash .7.8 


FOR    CABBAGES,    CAULIFLOWER,    CUCUMBERS    AND    MELONS. 


(1)  Nitrate  of  soda    200^ 

Cotton  seed  meal 750  (  yjei^jjng 

Acid  phosphate 700  j 

Muriate  of  potash 250  ) 


Ammonia     6.0 

Available  phosphoric  acid  ...  4.8 
Potash    7.1 


FOR  SPINACH. 


(1)  Nitrate  of  soda    200 

Fish  scrap 650 

Acid  phosphate 920 

Muriate  of  potash 230 

(2)  Nitrate  of  soda 300 

Cotton  seed  meal 500 

Acid  phosphate 1000 

Muriate  of  potash 200 


{Ammonia 5.2 
Available  phosphoric  acid  ...  7.7 
Potash    6.0 

{Ammonia 5.0 
Available  phosphoric  acid  ...  7.6 
Potash , 5.6 


FOR  RADISHES  AND  TURNIPS 

(1 )  Nitrate  of  soda    250 

Cotton  seed  meal 550 

Acid  phosphate 900 

Muriate  of  potash 300 


yieldi 


og  I 


Ammonia 4.6 

Available  phosphoric  acid 6.5 

Potash 8.3 


Some  Special  Formulas  for  Truck  Crops — 283 


FOR  ASPARAGUS. 
Pounds.  Per  cent. 

1)   Nitrate  of  soda    200^  .  ^^ 

Cotton  seed  meal 700  (   „i^iHi,i«.  f   *  ^^^  ^,      i       vl     •        -^ a\ 

.    . ,     .        ,    ^  ^^^>  yielamg  J  Available  phosphoric  acid  ...     6.1 

Acid  phosphate 800  1  iTi+v,  ft4 

Muriate  of  potash 30oJ  ^""^^    * 


(1)   Nitrate  of  soda    200 

Cotton  seed  meal 700 

Acid  phosphate 840 

Muriate  of  potash 260 


FOR  EGG  PLANTS  AND  TOMATOES. 

{Ammonia 4.9 
Available  phosphoric  acid 6.3 
Potash    7.4 


FOR  ONIONS. 

(1)   Nitrate  of  soda 200 ")  ^  .  _ , 

'  '  Ammonia 5.1 


. ,  . ,  ,  ,  -t-A  f  r  Ammonia o.i 

Cotton  seed  meal 750  1  ,,i^iHiTirr  I    *      .,  ,  ,     v       .      •         j  ci 

Acid  phosphate 750  (  y"""'"^  1  A^"*""*'"'  phosphoric  acid  ....  5.1 

Muriate  of  potash 300  J 


Potash 8.5 


FOR    SWEET    POTATOES. 

(1)   Nitrate  of  soda    100  ^ 


^.  ,  .^.  f  (  Ammonia o.o 

V^^  ""T^'u"  ; lion  ^  yielding  \  Available  phosphoric  acid 7.8 

Acid  phosphate 1180  1  p^t««h  .   8.3 

Muriate  of  potash 320  J 

(2)   Nitrate  of  soda 100  "j 

Cotton  seed  meal 500  (   „;^iH;.,rr  I    *      -,  ,_i      i_       v.     •         a  -7  c 

Aeid  phosphate 1100  f  ^'^''''"^  |  ^™''''"«  phosphoric  acid  ....  7.8 

Muriate  of  potash 300  J 


Ammonia 3.5 

Available  phosphoric  acid 7.8 

Potash 8.3 

Ammonia 3.5 

Available  phosphoric  acid 7.8 

Potash    8.3 


FOR   BEANS   AND   PEAS. 

(1)   Nitrate  of  soda    100^ 

Cotton  seed  meal 450  (      .,,.       f  f'^T.T  'i"'u    :""':, n^ 

Acid  phosphate 1200  f  ^^"^^^"^  |  ^^^^f  ^^  phosphoric  acid  ....  7.1 

Muriate  of  potash 25oJ  ^  ^^^^^^    ^'^ 


CHAPTEE  XL. 
SOME  STATION  INVESTIGATIONS  IN  FERTILIZERS. 

In  a  bulletin  published  in  1893  the  Ohio  Station,  from  a  series  of  four 
years  experiments,  concludes:  "While,  therefore,  these  experiments  demon- 
strate the  possibility  of  producing  a  regular  and  certain  increase  in  the  yield 
of  cereal  crops  by  the  use  of  a  complete  chemical  fertilizer,  yet  they  show 
that  if  such  fertilizers  are  to  be  used  in  Ohio  in  the  production  of  cereal 
crops  with  any  prospect  of  profit  and  as  a  part  of  a  regular  system  of  agri- 
culture, that  system  must  provide  for  the  accumulation  in  the  soil  of  the 
largest  possible  quantity  of  organic  nitrogen,  through  the  culture,  in  short 
rotations,  of  plants  which  have  the  power  of  obtaining  nitrogen  from  sources 
inaccessible  to  the  cereals." 

The  following  year  the  same  Station  made  the  following  additional 
statement :  "At  the  present  prices  of  cereal  crops  and  of  fertilizing  materials 
respectively  the  profitable  production  of  corn,  wheat  and  oats  upon  chemical 
or  commercial  fertilizers,  or  upon  barnyard  manure,  if  its  cost  be  proportion- 
ate to  that  of  the  chemical  constituents  of  fertility  found  in  commercial 
fertilizers,  is  a  hopeless  undertaking,  unless  these  crops  be  grown  in  a  sys- 
tematic rotation  with  clover  or  a  similar  nitrogen-storing  crop;  and  the 
poorer  the  soil  in  natural  fertility  the  smaller  the  probability  of  profitable 
crop  production  by  means  of  artificial  fertilizers." 

All  of  which  makes  more  emphatic  what  we  have  said  in  regard  to  the 
need  for  the  renovation  of  the  soil  and  the  storing  of  it  with  humus,  through 
the  growing  of  cow  peas  or  clover,  thus  making  it  not  only  richer  in  the 
nitrogenous  matters,  but  making  it  more  retentive  of  moisture  for  the  proper 
dissolving  of  the  chemicals  applied.  The  richer  the  soil  in  humus  the  more 
lavish  may  the  application  of  fertilizers  be  made  with  profit.  And  yet  all 
over  the  South  there  are  thousands  of  farmers  dribbling  a  little  fertilizer 
on  soil  almost  barren,  for  the  purpose  of  growing  a  little  more  cotton  without 
ever  inquiring  whether  or  not  the  increase  in  the  crop  pays  for  the  fertilizer. 

(284) 


Some  Station  Ivestigations  in  Fertilizers — 285 

The  Khode  Island  Station  givos  the  following  list  of  formulas  for  the 
home  mixing  of  fertilizers^  the  following  being  for  the  Irish  potato  crop: 

Pounds.  Per  cent. 

Acid  phosphate 850^  .Nitrogen 3.5 

Nitrateofsoda 1^0  (      ^^l^-^g  I  p^^^^j^ g^ 

Muriate  of  potash 300  |  Available  phosphoric  acid  ....  6.0 

Cotton  seed  meal   700  J  ^      ^ 


Where  a   higher  quality   of   potatoes  was   desired,   the  following  w^as 
advised : 


Pounds.  Per  cent. 

High  grade  sulphate  of  potash  325  ^ 

Nitrate  of  soda 100  /  r  Nitrogen    4.0 

Sulphate  of  ammonia 100  >  yielding  -j  Potash 8.0 

Dissolved  bone  black  750  I  I  Available  phosphoric  acid 7.0 

Cotton  seed  meal 725  J 


The  following  formula  was  designed  where  a  good  quality  of  tubers  was 
desired,  and  was  at  the  prices  then  ruling,  very  cheap : 

Pounds.  Per  cent. 

Cotton  seed  meal 800 ") 

".''°.^.^'.:;:;:Z[^'^'<*'"«{  

phosphate 


^^:t^''^'^:.::::  Z  ^-'-  p^T.::.;;::.:;;:;::;.;::.^: 

Acid  phosphate 700  J  Available  phosphoric  acid  ....  5.2 


The  following  formula  contains  a  large  amount  of  .nitrogen  in  the  form 
of  nitrates.  The  bone  comes  slowly  into  use  and  that  makes  it  best  for  a 
long  season  or  successive  crops: 

Pounds.  '  Per  cent. 

M  iiriate  of  potash 400  ^ 

Acid  phosphate 500  /  t  Nitrogen 2.5 

Nitrate  of  soda 250  >  yielding  -j  Potash 10.2 

Bone  meal 400  I  ^  Available  phosphoric  acid 7.2 

Cotton  seed  meal 450  J 


Another  Khode  Island  potato  formula: 

Potind>=  Per  cent. 

Acid  phosphate 89f  'J 

Tankage 550  f     .  ,,.       f  Nitrogen 2.5 

Muriate  of  potash 450  f^^^^"^      ^^*"^^ "'^ 

Nitrate  of  soda 110  J  Available  phosphoric  acid  ....  7.2 


286 — Crop  Feeding  and  Crop  Growing 

The  grower  who  used  the  above  formula  became  convinced  that  it  con- 
tained too  little  nitrogen  for  his  soil,  and  he  used,  then,  the  following: 

Pounds.  Per  cent. 

Nitrate  of  soda 150  ^ 

Sulphate  of  ammonia 100  /  r  Nitrogen 4.6 

Dried  blood 450  V  yielding  j  Potash 10.0 

Muriate  of  potash 400  1  i  Available  phosphoric  acid 5.8 

Acid  phosphate 900  J 


Another  Ehode  Island  grower  uses  the  following: 

Pounds.  Per  cent. 

H.  G.  sulphate  of  potash 360  ] 

Acid  phosphate 550  I  ^^.^ 

^1  _on  r  Nitrogen 8.9 

I       "^^-^y^ .'^"yielding  I  Potash 8.6 

Fme  ground  bone 120  ' 

Nitrate  of  soda 120  | 

Dried  blood 120  J 


Available  phosphoric  acid  . , . .  6.0 


Another  grower  made  various  changes  in  the  formulas  he  used  from 
year  to  year,  and  the  following  represents  the  ideal  which  he  finally  reached. 
He  uses  only  the  highest  grades  of  materials : 

Pounds.  Per  cent. 

Fine  ground  bone 400 

Dissolved  bone  black 400 

Dry  ground  fish 300 

Cotton  seed  meal 300 

Nitrate  of  soda 200 

Sulphate  of  potash   . ." 200 

Muriate  of  potash 200 


{Nitrogen 4.0 
Potash 10.0 
Available  phosphoric  acid 6.4 


Very  excellent  results  are  claimed  for  this  formula  for  potatoes  and 
.  egetables  in  rotation  with  cereals  and  grasses.  He  mixes  but  500  pounds  at 
each  mixing,  and  instead  of  weighing  out  each  time  the  amount  of  the 
materials  to  be  mixed,  he  uses  boxes  gauged  to  hold  approximately  the  right 
weights. 

Another  grower  has  used  the  following  with  good  results: 

Ponnds.  Per  cent. 

Dissolved  bone  black 750  ^ 

Tankage 760  /  r  Nitrogen 4.5 

H.  G.  sulphate  of  potash 430  >  yielding  j  Potash : . .  10.3 

Sulphate  of  ammonia 140  (  ^  Available  phosphoric  acid 6.7 

Nitrate  of  soda     100  j 


Some  Station  Investigations  in  Fertilizers — 287 

Proposed  formula  for  onions: 

Pounds.  Per  cent. 

Muriate  of  potash 400  ^ 

Acid  phosphate 550  /  r  Nitrogen i 4.4 

Tankage 500  V  yielding  j  Potash 10.0 

Fine  ground  bone 200  I  I  Available  phosphoric  acid 5.9 

Nitrate  of  soda 350  J 

Hhode  Island  formula  for  general  purposes : 

Pounds.  Per  cent. 

Nitrate  of  soda 125^ 

Muriate  of  potash 400  J  ^  Available  phosphoric  acid  ....  8.0 


A  compost  with  hen  manure: 


Pounds.  Per  cent. 

Air  dry  hen  manure 1330  \  r  Nitrogen    2.0 

Acid  phosphate 530  >  yielding  -j  Potash 4.5 

Muriate  of  potash 140  )  l  Phosphoric  acid 5.1 


As  we  have  said  heretofore,  we  have  never  found  any  fertilizer  in  which 
there  is  purchased  nitrogen,  which  paid  its.  cost  on  the  Indian  corn  crop.  The 
Khode  Island  Station  gives  the  following  formula  for  corn,  which  is  certainly 
well  compounded  to  suit  the  manurial  requirements  of  the  plant  for  most 
soils.  But  for  a  soil  notably  deficient  in  potash,  as  much  of  the  New 
England  soil  is,  we  would  reverse  the  percentages  of  phosphoric  acid  and 
potash. 


Pounds.  Per  cent. 

Acidrphosphate 920 

Nitrate  of  soda 330 

Tankage 550  , 

Muriate  of  potash 20oJ  '^  Phosphoric  acid 8.3 


r  Nitrogen    5.1 

yielding  \  Potash 5.0 


The  acid  phosphate  in  the  above  is  stated  in  the  bulletin  as  dissolved 
bone,  and  the  following  remarks  are* appended. 

"Dissolved  bone  is  frequently  sold  at  so  high  a  price  that  it  would  be 
better  economy  to  omit  its  use  and  substitute  a  little  extra  nitrate  of  soda 
to  supply  the  nitrogen ;  and  dissolved  bone  black,  dissolved  phosphate  rock 
or  double  superphosphate  to  furnish  the  phosphoric  acid."  This  advice  is 
good,  except  that  it  would  add  more  expense  to  the  nitrogen,  and  it  would 
have  been  better  to  have  stated  plainly  that  soluble  phosphoric  acid  is  one  and 
the  same  thing,  no  matter  whether  it  is  derived  from  bone  or  rock,  and  if 


288 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

the  "dissolved  bones"  are  not  really  dissolved  rock  phosphate  it  would  be  an 
exception  to  the  general  practice  of  the  fertilizer  trade,  for  the  idea  is  so  com- 
mon among  farmers  that  the  phosphoric  acid  from  animal  bones  is  better 
than  that  from  rock,  that  manufacturers  have  gotten  into  the  habit  of  calling 
dissolved  rock,  bone. 

Another  Khode  Island  formula  for  use  on  sandy  soil  for  corn  is  as  follows : 


Pounds.  Per  cent. 

Muriate  of  potash 360  \  r  Nitrogen 4.2 

Dissolved  bone  black 1000  i  yielding  ]  Potash 9.0 

Nitrate  of  soda 5o0  3  i  Phosphoric  acid 9.2 


The  main  fault  in  this  is  that  all  the  nitrogen  is  furnished  by  the  im- 
mediately a.vailable  nitrate  of  soda,  and  if  the  corn  is  planted  where  there  is 
no  plowed  under  sod,  there  would  be  need  for  some  organic  nitrogen  to  keep 
up  the  nitrification  during  the  long  season  in  which  corn  grows.  Then,  too, 
the  phosphoric  acid  could  be  more  cheaply  gotten  in  South  Carolina  dissolved 
rock  than  in  bone  black,  though  the  percentage  might  not  have  been  so  high, 
but  as  the  percentage  of  phosphoric  acid  is  too  high  anyway,  this  would  be 
no  disadvantage,  unless  the  soil  is  known  to  be  very  deficient  in  phosphoric 
acid. 

The  Rhode  Island  Station  gives  the  following  formula,  which  was  de- 
vised for  the  soil  of  an  old  pasture  of  sandy  land,  known  to  be  very  deficient 
in  phosphoric  acid : 

Pounds.  Per  cent. 

Nitrate  of  soda 200  ^ 

Tankage  700  (  f  Nitrogen 3.7 

Double  superphosphate'  .* ! . '.  .* !  700  f  ^'"^^*^^      ^^^ash 10.0 

Muriate  of  potash 40oJ  ^  Phosphoric  acid 15  8 

The  bulletin  states  that  half  a  ton  per  acre  of  this  formula  was  used  for 
Indian  corn,  and  the  yield  to  have  been  much  above  the  average.  We  are  of 
the  opinion  that  the  yield  must  have  been  much  above  the  average  and 
the  price  of  the  crop  still  further  above  the  averaare  for  the 
farmer  to  have  gotten  the  cost  out  of  the  crop.  The  same  grower  stated  that 
this  formula,  applied  at  the  rate  of  a  ton  per  acre,  produced  a  yield  of  280 
bushels  of  potatoes  per  acre  on  an  old  sandy-loam  pasture.  This  would  not 
have  been  considered  an  extraordinary  yield  for  such  fertilization  by  the  grow- 
ers of  the  early  potato  crop  in  the  South  Atlantic  coast,  and  it  would  have 
been  more  satisfactory  to  know  how  many  potatoes  could  have  been  grown  on 
the  old  sod  without  such  a  heavy  application,  for  it  is  not  the  largest  crop  that 
is  always  the  most  profitable. 


Some  Station  Investigations  in  Fertilizkrs — 289 

Another  Hliodc  Island  t'oinula  for  corn  on  sandy  soil  is  as  follows: 

I'ounas.  Percent. 

Nitrate  of  8oda 250  ) 

Mu>,ate«f,K.ta»b ='"4  yielding  |  p"X vl 

Acid  phosphate 12()0  (  ^  ^  ]   ^^^^«n 7./ 

Cotton  seed  meal    2)0  J  ^  Phosi)horic  aoid 8.0 

COMPOST   FOh'  COKX    WlTir    IIICX    MANURE  AS  A  BASTS.       RIIODK   ISLAND  STATION. 

Pounds.  Per  cent. 

Air  dry  hen  manure 1190  \  r  Nitrogen 1.8 

Acid  phosphate    710  [  yielding  }   Potash 3.4 

Muriate  of  potash 100  i  I  Phosphoric  acid 6.0 


FORMULA    FOR    MILI.KT    AND    IIUNOARIAN.       RHODE    ISLAND    STATION. 

Pounds.  Per  cent. 

Acid  phosphate 900 1  ^^. 

Nitrate  of  soda 200  ((^j^i^f  Nitrogen S.o 

Muriate  of  potash 300  f  y'^"*"^      ^f'*''!  '  ■.•   •   •.. H 

Cotton  seed  meal 60oJ  ^  Phosphoric  acid d.i 

The  bulletin  suggests  that  on  old  land  in  poor  condition  probably  better 
returns  would  be  obtained  by  substituting  a  little  nitrate  of  soda  and  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  dissolved  phosphate  rork  for  a  portion  of  the  cotton 
seed  meal. 


FORMULA  FOR   BARLEY.       RLTODE   ISLAND   STATION. 

Pounds.  Per  cent. 

Dissolved  bone 980 ") 

Muriate  of  potash ^^'«      yielding  j  ^S" 55 

Tankage '880  {   ^  ^  ]   ^^^n o.b 

Nitrateofsoda 47oJ  ^  Phosphoric  acid 7.9 

FORMULA  FOR  SPINACH,   LETTUCE,   CABBAGE  AND  CUCUMBERS.       R.   I.   STATION. 

Pounds.  Per  cent. 

Muriate  of  potash 370  ^ 

Nitrateofsoda 500  (      .  ,^.       f  ^Hro^en 6.6 

Acid  phosphate 5^  >yieldmg      Potash 9.7 

Cotton  seed  meal 540  J  ^  Phosphoric  acid 4.2 


FORMULA    FOR    ASPARAGUS.       RHODE    ISLAND    STATION. 

Pounds.  Per  cent. 

^^.,    ^      ^     J  o^^ ")  Nitrogen 3.9 

Nitrate  of  soda 3 /O  /  r  p  *^  i  -,  -  q 

Muriate  of  potash 680      yielding      ^vailaVle  phosphonc  acid  : : ! !  1.5 

Fmegroundbone lOOOj  Sotal  phosphoric  acid H.O 


290 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 
for  seeding  down  and  topdressing  grass.     rhode  island  station. 

Pounds.  Per  cent. 

Muriate  of  potash 200  ^ 

Nitrate  of  soda 200  /  r  Nitrogen 4.0 

Cotton  seed  meal 600  >  yielding  <  Potash 5.5 

Acid  phosphate 500  I  i  Phosphoric  acid 6.4 

Fine  ground  bone 500  J 

FORMULA  FOR  FALL  GRAIN.       RHODE  ISLAND  STATION. 

Pounds.  Per  cent. 

Nitrate  of  soda 50  ^ 

Muriate  of  potash 200  /  r  Nitrogen    3.0 

Acid  phosphate 400  >  yielding  -j  Potash 5.0 

Fine  ground  bone 700  I  l  Phosphoric  acid 8.0 

Tankage 650  J 

FOR   SPRING   TOP   DRESSING  GRASS   LANDS.      RHODE   ISLAND   STATION. 

Pounds.  Per  cent. 

Nitrate  of  soda 300  ^  r  Nitrogen 2.3 

Acid  phosphate 1480  I  yielding  \  Potash 5.5 

Muriate  of  potash 220  J  i  Phosphoric  acid 9.6 


We  quote  the  following  from  the  bulletin  of  the  Rhode  Island  Station 
on  the  effect  of  wood  ashes  as  a  fertilizer,  and  the  supplementary  constitu- 
ents which  should  be  used  in  connection  with  them: 

"We  find  that  farmers  in  most  sections  of  Rhode  Island  highly  esteem 
wood  ashes  as  a  manure,  and  in  many  localities  they  seem  to  hold  a  rank  next 
to  barnyard  manure.  From  repeated  inquiries  made  in  many  sections  of  the 
State  it  appears  that  the  beneficial  effect  of  wood  ashes  is,  almost  without 
exception,  attributed  to  the  direct  manurial  action  of  the  potash  which  they 
contain,  yet  it  is  usual  to  hear  that  the  effects  itom  a  single  application  are 
often  visible  for  from  ten  to  fifteen  years.  When  we  consider,  however,  that 
100  bushels  of  ashes  weighing  about  4,500  pounds  would,  upon  the  average 
basis  of  5  per  cent,  of  potash,  contain  but  225  pounds  of  actual  potash,  which 
is  equivalent  to  but  450  pounds  of  muriate  of  potash,  it  would  seem  at  least 
astonishing  that  an  after-effect  from  such  an  application  should  be  visible 
for  from  ten  to  fifteen  years  unless  it  were  due  in  a  considerable  measure 
to  something  other  than  the  small  amount  of  potash  it  contains.  An  appli- 
cation of  a  ton  of  potato  or  vegetable  fertilizer  containing  10  per  cent,  of  pot- 
ash would  supply  200  pounds  of  potash,  equivalent  to  400  pounds  of  muriate 
of  potash,  or  an  amount  nearly  equal  to  that  supplied  by  4,500  pounds  of 
wood  ashes;  and  yet  we  practically  never  hear  of  any  long  continued  after 
effect  from  the  use  of  muriate  or  sulphate  of  potash,  or  of  chemical  fertilizers 
which  contain  them.     Wood  ashes  contain  on  an  average  about  1.5  per  cent. 


Some  Station  Investigations  in  Fertilizers — 391 

of  phosphoric  acid,  which  would  amount  to  an  application  of  67.5  pounds 
of  pliosphoric  acid  for  each  4,500  pounds  of  wood  ashes,  an  amount  equivalent 
to  what  would  be  furnished  by  about  300  pounds  of  fine  ground  bone.  Xow 
if  the  action  of  the  ashes  is  based  upon  the  combined  manurial  effect  of  the 
potash  and  phosphoric  acid,  then  450  pounds  of  muriate  of  potash  and  300 
pounds  of  ground  bone  would  be  expected  to  exert  an  effect  analagous  to  that 
obtained  from  the  wood  ashes.  As  a  matter  of  fact  we  believe  that  the  farm- 
ers of  Rhode  Island  and  many  other  parts  of  New  England  have  obtained 
results  with  wood  ashes  which  are  not  due  to,  and  which  doubtless  would  not 
be  attainable,  by  the  use  of  the  quantities  of  muriate  of  potash  and  bone  above 
mentioned.  It  would  appear  to  be  equally  unsatisfactory  to  attribute  the 
beneficial  action  of  wood  ashes  solely  to  small  quantities  of  magnesia,  soda, 
or  whatever  else  they  may  contain,  regardless  of  the  lime.  The  experiments 
thus  far  conducted  at  this  Station,  as  well  as  others  at  Hope  Valley  and  Wes- 
terly, together  with  experiments  by  farmers  in  West  Kingston,  Usquepaugh, 
and  several  other  localities  without  the  State,  point  strongly  to  the  value  of 
lime  on  many  soils;  not  only  as  direct  plant  food,  but  also  in  putting  the  soil 
into  a  condition  suitable  for  the  growth  of  certain  plants,  and  into  such  a 
condition  that  the  nitrogenous  plant  food  stored  up  in  the  soil,  as  well  as  that 
in  organic  nitrogen  and  ammonium  sulphate  employed,  may  exert  its  maxi- 
mum effect.  In  this  connection,  also  the  well  known  value  of  lime  in  improv- 
ing the  physical  condition  of  sandy  as  well  as  clayey  soils  should  not  go  un- 
mentioned.  In  other  words,  our  experience  and  observation  in  this  State 
leads  us  to  believe  that  the  chief  cause  of  the  long  continued  after  effect  of 
wood  ashes  is  the  lime  which  they  contain  and  not  the  potash,  as  has  been 
heretofore  generally  supposed.  Certainly  if  such  is  the  case  it  behooves  the 
farmers  of  the  State  to  try  the  lime  experiment  for  the  purpose  of  testing 
this  question,  for  the  same  amount  of  lime  and  other  fertilizing  elements 
which  wood  ashes  contain  can  be  purchased  in  other,  probably  equally 
effective,  forms  at  a  lower  price.  It  will  be  evident  from  what 
has  just  been  said,  that  wood  ashes  contain  but  little  phosphoric 
acid,  and  it  is  also  true  that  they  contain  no  nitrogen.  Therefore 
if  they  are  to  be  used  on  a  rational  and  economical  basis  they  must  be  supple- 
mented by  phosphatic  and  nitrogenous  fertilizers.  The  following  materials 
used  upon  one  acre  would  be  about  equivalent,  so  far  as  concerns  potash,  phos- 
phoric acid  and  nitrogen,  to  one  ton  of  fertilizer  containing  10  per  cent,  of 
potash,  6.5  per  cent,  of  available  phosphoric  acid,  and  4  per  cent,  of  nitrogen: 

Wood  ashes 4000  pounds 

Dissolved  phosphate  rock 1000  pounds 

Nitrate  of  Boda 610  pounds 

t 


292 — Crop  Growin^g  and  Crop  Feeding 

Practically  the  same  amount  of  lime  and  other  ingredients  would  be  con- 
tained in  the  following: 

Air  slaked  lime 2000  pounds 

Dissolved  phosphate  rock 1460  pounds 

Muriate  of  potash 400  pounds 

Nitrate  of  soda 510  pounds." 

All  of  which  we  assume  is  probably  theoretically  true,  and  yet  in  the 
effort  to  make  an  artificial  substitute  for  the  wood  ashes,  would  there  not  be  a 
danger  of  a  great  loss  of  nitrogen  ?  We  are  of  the  opinion  that  these  matters 
may  well  be  applied  to  some  soils,  but  that  the  fertilizing  chemicals  should 
be  mixed  and  applied,  and  the  lime  applied  separately  and  not  in  mixture 
with  the  fertilizers.  So  far  as  the  long-continued  after  effect  of  the  wood 
ashes  is  concerned,  we  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  Rhode  Island  Station  is 
to  a  great  extent  correct  in  attributing  at  least  part  of  it  to  the  lime  they  con- 
tain, and  especially  we  would  add  to  the  extremely  fine  condition  in  which  the 
lime  exists  in  the  wood  ashes.  But  we  consider  it  an  error  to  advise  the  use 
of  air  slaked  lime  as  an  application  to  the  soil.  Freshly  water  slaked  lime  is 
far  better.  Then,  too,  while  ashes  have  a  long  after  effect,  we  cannot  agree 
to  the  statement  that  similar  after  effects  are  not  found  from  applications  of 
potash  salts  and  phosphoric  acid.  In  a  considerable  section  with  which  we  are 
familiar  the  long  continued  use  of  phosphoric  acid  to  the  soil  has  resulted 
in  an  accumulation,  so  that  farmers  there  no  longer  find  any  effect  from  new 
applications  of  superphosphate,  and  it  is  a  well  known  fact  that  potash  ac- 
cumulates in  a  similar  manner. 

To  the  following  remarks  from  the  Rhode  Island  Station  we  heartily 
agree:  "Barnyard  manure  contains  relatively  more  nitrogen  than  potash, 
and  is  notably  deficient  in  phosphoric  acid,  so  that  if  the  manure  is  to  be  used 
on  the  most  economical  basis  a  small  amount  of  potash  and  a  much  larger 
quantity  of  phosphoric  acid  should  be  used  in  connection  with  it.  Owing  to 
the  great  variation  in  the  composition  of  such  manure,  depending  upon  the 
cattle  food  used,  the  care  of  the  manure,  and  the  amount  of  foreign  matter 
mixed  with  it,  no  attempt  to  give  the  exact  amounts  for  use  will  be  made. 
A  motto  in  relation  to  manures  which  should  find  its  place  on  every  farm 
would  read  somewhat  as  follows:  Save  what  you  have,  supplement  it  wisely 
and  buy  economically." 

We  would  add  that  this  saving  and  supplementing  can  well  be  done  by 
mixing  the  manure  daily,  when  taken  from  the  stable,  with  a  mixture  of  acid 
phosphate  and  kainit  in  equal  parts.  It  has  long  been  the  practice  with 
some  to  use  plaster  for  this  purpose,  but  while  plaster,  if  properly  used,  is 


Some  Station  Investigations  in  Fertilizers — 293 

effectual  in  preventing  the  loss  of  nitrogen,  it  fails  to  add  the  potash  and  phos- 
phoric acid  needed,  and  the  above  mixture  will  be  as  effective  in  preventing 
loss  of  nitrogen,  and  will  at  the  same  time  add  what  the  manure  is  deficient 
in.  The  Rhode  Island  Station  has  done  perhaps  more  in  the  investigation  of 
the  value  and  effects  of  lime  than  any  other  of  our  Stations,  and  we  add  here, 
as  an  addition  to  what  we  have  already  said  upon  the  effects  of  lime,  the  fol- 
lowing quotation  from  Bulletin  40  of  that  Station : 

CHEMICAL  action  OF  LIME. 

"Lime  unites  with  acid  substances  in  the  soil,  by  which  the  soil  is  sweet- 
ened, or  its  natural  acidity  (sourness)  overcome  or  reduced.  In  case  certain 
injurious  iron  compounds  are  present  in  soils,  these  are  so  transformed  by 
lime  as  to  be  rendered  harmless.  It  also  acts  upon  the  potash  compounds 
in  the  soil  in  such  a  way  that  the  lime  takes  the  place  of  the  potash,  setting 
the  latter  free  for  the  use  of  plants.  If  lime  is  present  in  a  soil  to  which 
ordinary  commercial  fertilizers,  dissolved  boneblack,  dissolved  bone,  dissolved 
phosphate  rock,  or  double  superphosphate,  have  been  added,  it  is  probable 
that  some  of  the  soluble  phosphoric  acid  will  further  combine  with  lime,  in 
which  condition  it  would  be  expected  to  be  more  readily  available  to  plants 
than  would  have  been  the  case  had  lime  been  absent,  and  a- more  favorable  op- 
portunity been  given  for  all  the  phosphoric  acid  not  quickly  utilized  by  the 
plants  to  combine  with  iron  and  aluminum  oxids. 

BIO-CHEMICAL  EFFECTS  OF  LIME. 

"The  presence  of  lime  in  soils  favors  the  decomposition  of  the  organic 
matter  which  they  contain,  and  in  this  process  carbonic  acid  is  produced, 
which  in  turn  acts  upon  the  ingredients  of  the  soils  in  such  a  way  as  to  render 
the  natural  plant  food  much  more  readily  assimilable.  It  plays,  likewise,  an 
important  part  in  facilitating  the  change  of  ammonia  into  nitric  acid,  or, 
in  other  words,  in  placing  at  the  disposal  of  plants  the  stored  up  nitrogen  of 
the  soil,  as  well  as  that  applied  to  or  left  in  it,  in  the  form  of  animal  ma- 
nures, meat,  blood,  fish,  plant  roots,  etc. 

"Clover,  alfalfa,  and  certain  other  of  the  plants  which  have  the  power 
of  drawing  their  nitrogen  supply  chiefly  from  the  air  within  the  soil,  are 
unable  to  make  a  satisfactory  growth  and  to  thus  utilize  the  vast  amount  of 
nitrogen  about  them,  provided  the  soil  exceeds  a  certain  degree  of  acidity,  but 
by  the  application  of  lime  they  are  made  to  thrive  and  to  gather  for  the 
farmer  stores  of  nitrogen,  for  which  he  must  pay  a  fertilizer  dealer,  at  present 
prices,  at  the  rate  of  about  thirteen  cents  per  pound." 


294 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

But  it  is  unfortunate,  perhaps,  that  the  same  effect  the  lime  has  in  sweet- 
ening the  soil  for  the  bacteria  that  promotes  the  nitrogen  collection  of  the 
legumes,  will  also  sweeten  it  for  the  growth  of  other  and  injurious  fungi,  and 
hence  it  has' been  found  that  an  application  of  lime  to  a  soil  well  filled  with 
decaying  organic  matter  and  planted  in  potatoes,  will  have  the  effect  of  pro- 
moting the  growth  of  the  fungus  that  causes  potato  scab.  Hence  it  is  well  to 
avoid  the  direct  application  of  lime  to  the  potato  crop.  But  if  the  lime  is 
used  to  promote  a  previous  growth  of  clover  it  will  not  injuriously  affect  the 
potatoes  when  planted  on  the  clover  sod.  While  most  of  the  legumes  are 
benefited  in  their  growth  by  an  application  of  lime,  the  Southern  cow  pea  is  an 
exception,  and  it  seems  to  be  injured  rather  than  helped  by  the  direct  applica- 
tion of  lime.  But  after  a  crop  of  peas  has  been  grown  on  the  land,  the  ap- 
plication of  lime  on  the  stubble  will  greatly  aid  in  the  work  the  peas  do  for 
the  succeeding  crop.  Therefore,  in  a  rotation  of  corn,  winter  grain,  peas 
and  cotton  in  the  South  the  lime  should  always  be  applied  on  the  small  grain, 
especially  if  a  large  amount  of  organic  matter  has  been  applied  to  the  pre- 
ceding corn  crop,  either  by  the  turning  under  of  a  winter  crop  or  the  appli- 
cation of  the  barnyard  manures,  or  both. 

Quoting  further  from  the  same  bulletin  of  the  Rhode  Island  Station: 
"Lime  applied  to  stiff  clays  causes  them  to  become  more  friable,  more  perme- 
able to  the  air,  easier  of  tillage  and  better  capable  of  supplying  water  to  plants 
as  needed.  Sandy  soils,  on  the  other  hand,  are  rendered  by  it  more  compact 
and  more  retentive  of  water  and  fertilizers.  On  very  dry,  sandy  soils  smaller 
applications  of  lime  must  be  made  than  upon  moist  ones,  and  the  use  of  large 
quantities  of  lime  upon  such  soils,  in  single  applications  is  inadvisable. 

WHEN  TO  APPLY  LIME. 

"For  the  reason  that  lime,  while  in  its  caustic  state,  is  injurious  to  cer- 
tain crops,  and  by  lying  in  the  soil  its  causticity  is  soon  lost  or  materially  de- 
creased, it  is  evident  that  the  ideal  time  to  apply  it  would  be  in  the  autumn. 
When  autumn  seeding  is  practiced,  either  with  grass  alone  or  in  connection 
with  winter  grain,  the  lime  should  be  sown  upon  the  furrows  after  plowing, 
and  then  most  thoroughly  harrowed  in,  for  the  degree  of  benefit  from  liming 
will  depend  to  a  great  extent  upon  its  even  distribution  and  complete  incor- 
poration into  the  surface  soil.  Where  seeding  Indian  corn  fields  to  grass  at 
the  last  hoeing  is  practiced,  as  is  common  in  the  Connecticut  Valley  in  Mass- 
achusetts, it  would  be  advisable  to  apply  the  lime  in  the  manner  outlined 
above  after  plowing  the  land  in  the  spring  for  the  Indian  corn  crop.  Under 
other  circumstances  it  is  probably  better  not  to  lime  just  before  Indian  corn 


Some  Station  Investigations  in  Fertilizers — 395 

or  rye,  for  these  crops  are  liable  to  be  slightly  injured  by  fresh  applications 
of  lime,  some  of  which  is  in  a  caustic  state.  [We  would  remark  that  we  have 
never  found  this  the  case,  and  have  used  lime  freely  just  before  planting  corn 
with  the  best  eifects.— W.  F.  M.] 

"These  statements,  in  relation  to  care  in  liming  just  prior  to  growing 
rye,  Indian  corn  and  millet,  apply  to  cases  where  the  nitrogen  supply  is 
chiefly  in  the  form  of  nitrates,  such,  for  example,  as  nitrate  of  soda,  and 
where  the  soil  conditions  naturally  induce  rapid  nitrification  of  the  soil-nitro- 
gen, or  of  the  nitrogen  applied  in  natural  and  artificial  manures, 
such  as  ammonium  salts  or  organic  matter.  If  the  soil  is  very  sour  and  ni- 
trates are  not  employed,  then  the  use  of  lime  immediately  before  these  crops 
may  prove  of  great  service,  for  the  reason  that  the  benefit  derived  from  the 
lime  by  virtue  of  its  facilitating  the  transformation  of  the  nitrogen  into  a. 
form  immediately  assimilable  by  the  plant,  may  far  outweigh  any  direct  in- 
jury that  the  lime  might  otherwise  have  exerted."  And  we  would  add  that 
no  good  farmer  will  be  so  ignorant  as  to  buy  nitrates  for  his  corn  in  a  properly 
devised  rotation,  and  no  harm  can  come  from  applying  lim^  to  a  soil  where 
manure  has  been  plowed  under  for  the  corn. 

improvement  of  worn  lands. 

We  find  the  following  in  Bulletin  62  of  the  Louisiana  Station.  How 
can  the  worn  lands  of  Louisiana  be  most  speedily  and  economically  restored 
to  their  primitive  fertility^  The  answer  would  be,  by  proper  rotation  of 
crops,  with  or  without  fertilizers.  What  crops  shall  be  taken  for  this  rota- 
tion? Any  combination  which  omits  our  cow  pea  would  be  injudicious. 
Several  years  ago  this  rotation  was  decided  upon  as  the  best  one  attainable 
in  this  section:  Corn,  oats,  followed  by  cow  peas  and  cotton.  This  rotation 
is  faulty  in  principle  but  correct  in  practice,  and  was  adopted  last  season 
after  two  years'  trial.  The  corn  should  precede  the  cotton,  but  experience 
has  demonstrated  that  Rust  Proof  oats,  the  only  variety  successfully  grown 
here,  must  be  planted  in  October  if  maximum  results  are  desired.  [In  North 
Carolina  they  should  be  sown  in  September.]  Cotton  cannot  be  removed 
in  time  for  this  crop,  while  corn  can ;  hence  this  metathesis  of  crops.  This 
rotation  was  adopted  with  and  without  fertilizers.  It  was  begun  in  1889. 
Three  parallel  strips,  one-half  acre  wide  and  two  acres  long,  were  selected 
for  the  experiments.  The  eastern  half  of  each  was  manured  regularly  with  a 
fertilizer  adapted  to  the  crop,  while  the  western  half  remains  without  fertil- 
izer. The  oats  in  the  foregoing  fertilized  plat  were  fertilized  with  the  Sta- 
tion's   grain    fertilizer    at    rate    of    200    pounds    of    cotton    seed    meal 


296 — Ckop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

and  100  pounds  of  acid  phosphate,  mixed  and  scattered  and  harrowed  in 
with  the  oats,  lihe  peas,  fertilized  with  50  pounds  of  acid  phosphate  and 
50  pounds  of  kainit.  The  pea,  being  a  nitrogen  gatherer,  no  nitrogen  was 
applied  additionally.  The  cotton  was  fertilized  with  the  Station's  compost 
for  cotton,  consisting  of:  One  ton  of  acid  phosphate;  100  bushels  of  stable 
manure;  100  bushels  of  green  cotton  seed;  built  in  the  following  proportions: 
First  layer,  5  bushels  of  stable  manure ;  second  layer,  5  bushels  of  cotton  seed ; 
third  layer,  100  pounds  of  acid  phosphate,  etc.  The  cotton  seed  is  made 
perfectly  wet  before  spreading.  The  corn  received  the  compost  for  corn, 
the  ingredients  the  same  as  above,  the  proportion  only  being  different,  being 
one  ton  acid  phosphate;  200  bushels  of  stable  manure;  200  bushels  of  cotton 
seed,  built  as  above,  except  proportion  of  50  pounds  of  acid  phosphate,  5 
bushels  of  manure,  and  5  bushels  of  seed.  The  cultivation  of  the  above  plats, 
for  this  year,  was  as  follows:  For  corn,  plat  A,  land  was  broken  with  three- 
mule  disc  plow,  8  inches  deep  in  February.  Rows  marked  off  four  feet  apart 
and  compost  applied  in  the  furrows  at  rate  of  30  bushels  per  acre.  A  flat 
list  was  made  on  this  and  corn  planted  March  31st.  At  last  cultivation  peas 
at  rate  of  two  bushels  per  acre  were  sown  broadcast.  For  oats  followed  by 
peas,  the  land  was  deeply  plowed  in  October  and  the  fertilizer  named  was 
scattered,  and  two  and  a  half  bushels  of  oats  per  acre  harrowed  in  with  it. 
After  the  oats  were  harvested  peas  were  planted  in  rows,  one  bushel  per  acre, 
with  the  fertilizer  named.  For  cotton  the  pea  stubble  was  plowed  in  Febru- 
ary and  manured  with  compost.  A  careful  study  of  the  results  of  this  rota- 
tion experiment  will  convince  the  most  skeptical  farmer  of  the  wisdom  of  the 
system.  The  fertilized  half  has  been  built  up  400  to  500  per  cent,  in  eleven 
years,  while  that  without  fertilizer  has  gained  twelve  to  twenty-five  per  cent. 
It  should  be  the  aim  of  every  farmer  to  so  handle  his  land  as  to  make  it  grow 
richer  instead  of  poorer.  By  this  system  it  can  be  done,  and  at  the  same  time 
getting  better  crops  and  profits.  It  is  of  special  interest  to  note  that  the  plat 
on  which  no  fertilizers  were  used,  in  1889  made  seven  and  a  half  bushels  of 
oats  per  acre,  and  4.22  tons  of  green  pea  vines ;  the  second  year  after,  when  it 
came  again  in  oats,  made  25.5  bushels  oats,  816  pounds  of  straw,  24  tons  of 
pea  vines,  the  increase  being  simply  due  to  the  rotation  and  the  peas. 

An  examination  of  the  results  will  show  the  immense  advantages  to  be 
derived  from  the  moderate  use  of  the  proper  fertilizers  in  the  rotation. 
Incidentally  it  may  be  observed  that  each  bushel  of  corn  will  give  about  70 
pounds  of  stover,  which,  when  cured,  is  a  most  excellent  forage  for  cattle, 
sheep  and  horses.  The  report  would  have  been  far  more  valuable  and  exact 
if  the  result  from  the  use  of  fertilizers  on  each  plat  had  been  given  as  com- 
pared with  the  corresponding  unfertilized  plat  and  the  cost  of  the  gain  com- 


Some  Station  Investigations  in  Fertilizers — 297 

pared.  The  only  statement  given  is  that  in  one  very  dry  season  when  the 
fertilized  plat  made  over  ten  bushels  per  acre  the  unfertilized  plat  did  not 
make  even  a  nubbin.  But  we  are  not  informed  whether  the  ten  bushels  on 
the  fertilized  plat  paid  the  expenses.  If  it  accorded  with  the  experience  of 
the  writer  it  did  not.  While  there  is  certainly  shown  a  gratifying  increase 
m  the  crops  on  the  land,  and  the  rotation  is  the  same  that  this  writer  has 
been  advocating  for  the  cotton  growers  of  the  South  for  many  years,  it  would 
be  interesting  to  have  such  a  course  of  fertilization  for  every  crop  grown 
compared  with  the  same  rotation  in  which  no  fertilizer  is  used  except  a  liberal 
application  of  mineral  fertilizers  to  the  pea  crop  following  the  oats,  and  all 
the  home-made  manures  and  cotton  seed  are  applied  broadcast  to  the  corn 
field.  From  our  own  experience  and  that  of  some  others  whom  we  have  in- 
duced to  try  the  plan  we  feel  sure  that  in  the  financial  profit,  if  not  in  the  ag- 
gregate results,  this  last  plan  would  make  a  far  better  showing  than  the  fer- 
tilization of  every  crop  in  the  rotation.  The  bulletin  does  not  give  any  infor- 
mation in  regard  to  the  use  made  of  the  pea  vines.  If  simply  used  as  manure 
direct,  there  was  a  serious  loss  as  compared  with  the  feeding  and  returning 
to  the  soil  of  the  resulting  manure.  What  the  Southern  farmer  needs  to 
learn  more  than  the  mere  use  of  commercial  fertilizers  is  that  there  is  a  profit 
to  him  and  a  larger  profit  to  his  farm,  through  the  feeding  of  all  forage  grown 
on  it.  There  will  be  a  greater  and  more  valuable  accumulation  of  humus 
in  the  soil  through  the  feeding  of  the  peas  and  corn  stover  than  in  any  other 
way  in  which  they  can  be  used,  as  the  resulting  manure  from  the  straw,  peas 
and  corn  stover  of  two  fields  would  be  added  to  one  of  them  to  go  into  corn. 
Another  fault  in  the  rotation  is  that  there  is  nothing  to  come  in  between  the 
cotton  and  the  com,  and  our  Southern  soil  especially  needs  a  green  winter 
cover  as  a  nitrogen  trap;  even  rye  will  do  better  than  nothing,  and  will  at 
least  add  more  to  the  humus  accumulation  on  the  corn  field.  With  this  modi- 
fication and  the  use  of  a  larger  application  of  phosphoric  acid  and  potash  to 
the  pea  crop,  and  no  further  fertilization  with  purchased  plant  food,  this 
three  year  rotation  will  do  more  for  the  building  up  of  the  Southern  soil 
and  the  prosperity  of  the  Southern  farmer  than  any  course  we  can  devise. 


CHAPTER  XLI. 

FRAUDS  IN  FERTILIZERS. 

There  are  in  the  manufacture  of  fertilizers  today,  men  who  are  as  hon- 
orable and  correct  in  all  their  dealings  as  those  in  any  other  line  of  business, 
but  in  States  where  the  fertilizer  laws  are  not  as  strict,  or  are  not  as  strictly 
enforced,  as  they  should  be,  there  are  those  in  the  fertilizer  business  (as  in 
every  other  line  of  human  effort),  whose  object  is  to  live  by  their  wits,  and  to 
give  as  little  as  possible  for  the  money  they  receive.  If  the  law  and  the  in- 
spectors do  not  watch  for  him,  the  farmer  is  perfectly  helpless  to  discover 
these  frauds.  If  the  stuff  has  a  rank  smell  he  is  apt  to  conclude  that  it  is  a 
good  article,  when  it  may  not  be  worth  hauling  home.  Owing  to  the  increas- 
ing stringency  of  the  fertilizer  laws,  there  is  less  of  fraud  in  fertilizers  than 
formerly,  but  the  rogues  are  still  about,  and  the  farmer  should  take  care  in 
the  purchase  of  fertilizers  to  deal  with  men  of  established  reputation  in  busi- 
ness affairs.  It  is  far  better  to  pay  what  may  seem  a  high  price  for  an  article 
of  proved  merit  than  to  get  a  mixture  at  an  apparently  low  price  in  which  you 
will  pay  a  high  price  for  all  that  is  valuable  in  it  and  then  have  to  freight  a 
lot  of  utterly  worthless  stuff  put  in  to  make  weight  and  to  make  the  price 
look  low.  There  is  hardly  a  manufacturer  who  will  not  make  for  customers 
any  particular  description  of  fertilizer  mixture,  and  in  many  cases  it  may  be 
better  to  get  the  mixture  made  according  to  your  formula  than  to  make  it 
yourself.  But  it  is  not  of  the  honorable  fertilizer  manufacturer  we  would 
speak  now.     It  is  of  the  rogues  and  their  dodges. 

THE  MAN  WITH  A  SECRET. 

One  of  the  most  common  frauds  is  the  man  who  has  a  fertilizer  formula 
for  sale.  We  struck  one  of  these  fellows  recently,  in  North  Carolina.  A  cor- 
respondent wrote  to  us  that  there  was  a  man  in  his  section  selling  a  formula 
and  farm  rights  for  $3.00,  and  he  sent  me  the  secret,  asking  my  opinion  in 
regard  to  it.  The  whole  thing  was  a  mixture  of  a  few  well  known  chemicals 
used  in  mixing  fertilizers.     These  were  to  be  mixed  with  a  certain  quantity 

(298) 


Frauds  in  Fertilizers — 299 

of  stable  manure,  and  lime  and  woods  earth,  and  the  resulting  mixture  was 
claimed  to  be  equal  to  any  fertilizer  sold  and  the  cost  was  to  be  but  $4  per  ton. 
I  explained  to  my  correspondent  the  result  of  mixing  sulphate  of  ammonia, 
and  stable  manure  with  lime,  and  published  the  fraud  in  one  of  the  State 
papers.  The  editor  soon  got  a  letter  from  the  "professor"  enclosing  one  of 
his  circulars  and  saying  that  I  had  attacked  him  and  he  wanted  space  for  an 
answer.  Since  I  had  simply  shown  up  the  article  he  was  selling  and  knew 
nothing  of  the  man,  the  editor  did  not  notice  his  request,  but  sent  me  the 
circular.  In  this  he  states  that  a  certain  noted  chemist  (himself)  had  made 
a  wonderful  discovery,  which  had  astonished  the  scientific  world,  and  that 
the  process  would  put  millions  in  the  farmers'  pockets,  when,  in  fact,  the  self 
styled  professor  had  never  been  heard  of*^s  a  chemist,  and  the  scientific  wot\^ 
had  never  been  astonished  at  his  mixture.  But  this  fellow  doubtless  sold  hun- 
dreds of  dollars'  worth  of  his  recipes  to  men  who  could  not  afford  to  take  a 
paper,  and  who  did  not  get  the  Station  bulletins,  and  did  not  know  that  the 
Stations  are  always  ready  to  furnish  practicable  formulas  for  fertilizers  with- 
out charge.  These  compost  peddlers  seem  to  have  found  a  rich  field  in  the 
South,  for  the  same  thing  was  tried  here  several  years  ago,  and  the  N"orth 
Carolina  Experiment  Station  at  that  time  issued  a  bulletin  of  warning  to  the 
farmers.  But  the  men  who  bought  "farm  rights"  from  the  last  man  had  not, 
of  course,  read  that  bulletin. 

''natural  plant  food.'' 

Some  years  ago  we  received  a  circular  from  another  correspondent,  giv- 
ing an  account  of  another  wonderful  discovery,  which  was  the  natural  food 
of  plants.  The  circular  gave  the  following  analysis  of  this  wonderful  article. 
It  was  evidently  gotten  up  for  the  purpose  of  bewildering  the  farmer,  and  I 
wrote  to  my  correspondent  that  the  article  was  simply  pulverized  phosphate 
rock  and  green  sand  marl,  as  was  evident  from  the  analysis. 
It  read  as  follows : 

Per  cent. 

Phosphoric  acid.     Total  (P205) 21.60  to  29.49 

Equivalent  to  bone  phosphate  of  lime 27.20  to  64.38 

Potash,  (K20)  from  glauconite 1.00  to    2.00 

Equivalent  to  common  sulfate  of  potash 2.00  to     4.00 

Silicic  acid   (S102) 5.26  to    8.10 

Carbonic  acid  (C02) 2.07  to    3.00 

Lime  (CaO) 29.16  to  32.00 

Magnesia  (MgO)  and  soda  (Na20) 3.21  to    8.05 

Aluminic  (A1203)  and  ferric  (Fe203)  oxids. .     5.14  to  10.26 


300 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

All  this  looked  exceedingly  learned  and  chemical,  and  the  farmer,  know- 
ing nothing  under  the  sun  about  the  meaning  of  all  this  array  of  symbols  and 
figures  is  totally  uninformed  as  to  the  nature  of  the  stuff.  The  circular 
stated  all  these  things  were  available  to  plants  in  the  soil.  The  mixture  was 
sold  all  the  way  from  $20  to  $28  per  ton,  according  to  locality.  The  New 
York  Station  took  up  the  examination  of  the  article  in  a  bulletin,  and  showed 
that  it  contained  in  a  ton  but  28  pounds  of  available  phosphoric  acid  and 
2.6  to  4.5  pounds  of  potash,  and  at  trade  values  for  these,  a  ton  of  the  great 
natural  plant  food  was  worth  $1.52. 

This  fraud,  which  was  simply,  as  was  evident  from  the  analysis,  a  pul- 
verized phosphate  rock  and  green  sand  marl  (glauconite)  has  been  so  fully 
exposed  that  nothing  has  of  late  beefi  heard  of  it. 

All  that  a  farmer  needs  to  know  in  regard  to  any  fertilizer  mixture  is 
how  much  nitrogen, phosphoric  acid  (in  an  available  form)  and  potash  it  con- 
tains. That  a  certain  percentage  of  phosphoric  acid  is  equivalent  to  what  would 
be  contained  in  another  combination,  such  as  bone  phosphate  of  lime,  has 
nothing  to  do. with  the  matter,  and  is  only  put  there  to  make  the  farmer  think 
there  are  bones  in  it;  as  these  fellows  know  that  most  farmers  have  a  high 
opinion  of  the  value  of  bones,  though  they  know  that  the  article  has  no  bone 
in  it  whatever.  They  also  know  that  farmers  consider  sulphate  of  potash  the 
best  form,  and  hence  they  say  that  the  percentage  of  potash  in  their  stuff  is 
the  same  amount  that  would  be  found  in  a  certain  amount  of  sulphate  of  pot- 
ash, while  there  is  not  a  particle  of  sulphate  in  the  stuff. 

So  far  has  this  habit  of  putting  "equivalent  to,"  on  the  sacks  obtained, 
that  firms  that  should  know  and  do  better  sometimes  add  these  meaningless 
figures.  1  have  before  me  a  sample  of  "Pure  Raw  Bone."  The  analysis 
printed  on  it  says:  "Ammonia,  3.65  to  4.15  per  cent.;  phosphoric  acid,  22.00 
to  24  per  cent.,  equivalent  to  bone  phosphate  of  lime,  48.00  to  52.00  per  cent." 

This  simply  means  that  the  article  contains  about  3  per  cent,  of  nitrogen 
and  22  per  cent,  of  insoluble  phosphoric  acid.  Fertilizer  manufacturers 
have  always  put  the  nitrogen  content  on  their  sacks  in  the  fovfa  of  ammonia, 
because  as  they  say,  "the  farmers  understand  ammonia  but  not  nitrogen." 
How  it  is  easier  for  a  farmer  to  understand  a  combination  than  a  simple  ele- 
ment we  cannot  understand.  The  figures  are  put  there  simply  because  they 
look  larger  in  the  form  of  ammonia,  a  compound  of  nitrogen  and  hydrogen, 
than  they  would  if  only  the  actual  nitrogen  was  printed.  The  3.65  per  cent, 
of  ammonia  is  simply  3  per  cent,  nitrogen  but  it  looks  larger 
to  put  on  the  combination  figures,  and  so  the  practice  has  grown. 
The  above  analysis  does  not  show  a  very  high  grade  of  raw  bone 
meal,     and     the     sliding     scale     is     deceptive     also,     as     it     gives     the 


Frauds  in  Fertilizers — 301 

dealer  a  loophole  to  crawl  out  of.  .  The  law  in  North  Carolina 
does  not  allow  a  manufacturer  to  say  3.65  to  4.15  per  cent.  He  must  give  the 
lowest  percentage  he  claims  and  no  more,  and  this  law  also  requires  that  noth- 
ing be  printed  on  the  sacks  except  the  percentages  of  nitrogen,  available  phos- 
phoric acid  and  potash.  Only  this  and  nothing  more,  unless,  as  is  proposed, 
the  source  from  which  the  constituents  are  derived  be  added. 

In  some  of  the  States  no  value  is  allowed  for  insoluble  phosphoric  acid, 
while  in  others  it  is  valued  at  3  cents  pei  pound.  In  regard  to  this  we  quote 
from  Dr.  Koberts's  book  on  the  "Fertility  of  Land."  He  gives  a  table  show- 
ing that  "the  average  of  forty-nine  soil  analyses  shows  that  more  than  4,000 
pounds  per  acre  of  phosphoric  acid  are  contained  in  the  first  eight  inches 
of  surface  soil,  the  larger  part  of  which,  presumably,  is  insoluble  under  pres- 
ent methods  of  tillage.  Would  it  be  wise  or  profitable  to  purchase,  at  2  cents 
per  pound,  additional  insoluble  phosphoric  acid,  when  the  soil  contains  such 
vast  stores  of  this  low  grade  plant  food  ?  True,  a  part  of  the  so-called  insolu- 
ble phosphoric  acid  may  become  available  and  produce  beneficial  results,  but 
since  the  soil  is  usually  abundantly  supplied  with  the  same  kind  of  material, 
would  it  not  be  wiser  to  make  it  available  by  tillage  than  to  purchase  more 
of  this  lazy  plant  food?" 

We  quote  the  above  largely  because  there  has  been  special  effort  to  put 
insoluble  phosphoric  acid  on  the  market  in  the  form  of  "floats,"  or  pulverized 
phosphatic  rock,  and  the  soft  phosphates  of  Florida,  which  are  not  adapted  to 
the  making  of  acid  phosphate.  There  is  abundant  evidence,  however,  that 
on  some  soils  these  insoluble  forms  of  phosphoric  acid  do  produce  good  results, 
though  seldom  on  the  immediate  crop.  If  offered  at  a  reasonably  low  price 
there  is  nothing  fraudulent  in  the  selling  of  these  articles  to  the  farmer,  pro- 
vided a  fair  price  is  charged  for  the  same.  It  would  be  noted  that  the  value 
to  the  farmer  of  insoluble  phosphoric  acid  depends  largely  in  the  material 
that  carries  it.  In  ground  raw  bones,  the  phosphoric  acid  is  in  an  insoluble 
form,  but  the  material  decays  rapidly  in  the  soil,  when  finely  ground,  and  the 
acid  becomes  available  more  quickly  than  that  in  the  rock  phosphate,  but  the 
chances  are  the  farmer  will  have  to  pay  more  for  it  than  if  he  could  buy  solu- 
ble phosphoric  acid  in  a  superphosphate. 

As  we  have  before  remarked,  the  frauds  in  fertilizers  are  becoming  fewer 
annually,  as  the  laws  of  the  different  States  become  more  stringent  and  are 
more  strictly  enforced.  In  the  Cotton  States,  where  fertilizers  have  long  been 
Bold  in  immense  quantities,  the  laws  are  better  than  in  those  States  where  the 
use  of  these  has  but  recently  begun,  and  there  should  be  some  united  effort 
on  the  part  of  those  in  control  of  the  fertilizer  inspection  in  the  various  States 
to  get  uniformly  good  laws  and  to  enforce  them.     These  laws  are  as  much 


302 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

for  the  benefit  of  the  honest  manufacturer  as  the  farmer,  for  he  has  to  con- 
tend with  an  unfair  competition. 

Eecently  the  peddlers  of  secret  formulas  for  fertilizer  mixtures  have 
been  very  active  in  the  South,  where  the  farmers  buy  fertilizers  largely,  and, 
by  extravagant  tales  of  what  their  fertilizers  will  do  and  the  cheapness  of  the 
mixtures,  they  have  been  able  to  sell  a  good  many  of  their  recipes  to  those 
who  think  they  cannot  afford  to  take  a  paper,  and  who  never  think  of  calling 
on  their  Experiment  Station  for  th«  proper  formula,  which  they  could  get 
free  of  charge.  One  of  the  most  recent  circulars  issued  by  these  humbugs 
and  sold  to  farmers  reads  as  follows : 

HOME  FERTILIZERS. 

Recipe  price,  15.00. 

The  greatest  fertilizer  known  for  the  fanner. 

Results  much  better  from  using  the  home  fertilizer  than  any  other  made. 

Cost,  $3.00  per  ton. 
Box  to  hold  one  ton  four  feet  square. 

INGREDIENTS. 
No.  1.  Stable  manure  one  inch  thick. 
No.  2.  Chemicals  one  gallon  on  layer. 
No.  3.  Lime  one-eighth  of  an  inch  thick. 
No.  4.  New  dirt  one  inch  thick. 
No.  5   Ashes  one-half  mch  thick. 
No.  6.  Salt  60  pounds  per  ton. 

CHEMICALS  FOR  ONE  TON. 
Potash.  8  pounds:  nitrate  of  soda.  4  pounds,  coperas,  4  pounds, 
muriate  of  ammonia,  12  pounds;  phosphate  acid,  5  pounds    Mix 
with  12  gallons  of  warm  water 

Agent 

The  name  of  the  concocter  of  this  mixture  is  not  given,  but  at  the  bot- 
tom is  written  "John  Green,  Agent,  from  Sullivan  Co.  Tenn."  Now  as  to 
the  ingredients  of  the  mixture.  Muriate  of  ammonia  is  never  used  for  fer- 
tilizing purposes,  for  the  nitrogen  in  it  can  be  had  far  more  cheaply  in  other 
forms.  The  chemicals  are  to  be  mixed  with  warm  water.  This  would  make 
the  ammonia  be  set  free  by  the  potash,  and  he  lost.  Copperas  (which  the 
ignoramus  spells  "coperas")  is  the  sulphate  of  iron  and  of  no  use  as  a  fertil- 
izer. Nitrate  of  soda  is,  of  course,  valuable,  but  it,  too,  would  be  lost  in  the 
mixture,  and  if  not,  the  amount  of  it  in  the  ton  would,  as  one  chemist  has 
said,  be  about  equal  to  three  dead  cats  per  acre.  Commercial  potash  is  not 
used  as  a  fertilizer  ingredient,  since  its  caustic  properties  would  set  ammonia 
free,  and  the  lime  would  not  only  have  this  effect  but  would  revert  the  little 


Frauds  in  Fertilizers — 303 

phospfiorie  acid  in  the  mixture.  The  salt  is  of  no  value  whatever  as  a  fertil- 
izer, and  the  ashes  would  have  the  effect  of  releasing  the  ammonia  in  the  sta- 
ble manure,  with  only  the  "new  dirt"  to  catch  it.  One  ton  of  this  mixture 
would  contain  about  7  pounds  of  phosphoric  acid.  6  pounds  of  nitrogen  (if 
it  did  not  get  away)  and  22  pounds  of  potash.  As  an  average  commercial 
fertilizer  contains  about  170  pounds  of  available  phosphoric  acid,  50  pounds 
of  nitrogen  and  45  pounds  of  potash,  the  bulletin  of  the  North  Carolina  Sta- 
tion, from  which  we  get  these  facts,  well  remarks  that  it  would  take  over  two 
tons  of  the  home  fertilizer  to  furnish  the  potash  in  one  ton  of  the  average 
commercial  fertilzer,  over  eight  tons  to  furnish  the  nitrogen  and  over  twenty- 
four  tons  to  furnish  the  phosphoric  acid.  Those  who  read  this,  or  the  bulle- 
tin of  the  North  Carolina  Station,  will  hardly  be  swindled  out  of  their  $5 
bills. 

The  same  bulletin.  No.  173,  of  the  North  Carolina  Experiment  Station, 
of  the  College  of  Agriculture  and  Mechanic  Arts,  gives  the  following  won- 
derful circular,  the  original  of  which  is  embellished  with  a  portrait  of  "Col. 
I.  J.  Britain,  Inventor,  Winston,  N.  C,"  and  is  as  follows  : 

"THE  PROCESS 

OF    COMPOUNDING    THE    FARMERS* 

COMPOUND  FERTILIZER. 

"First  dig  a  stable  pit  size  of  stall  or  stable  three  feet  deep.  After  dig- 
ging the  pit  take  a  rich  loamy  soil,  or  swamp  muck.  After  being  good  and. 
dry  place  in  the  pit  to  the  depth  of  six  inches,  then  place  a  thin  layer  of 
tobacco  stalks,  rotten  straw  or  cotton  seed.  Then  apply  liberally  by  hand 
over  the  entire  surface  of  the  pit,  the  following  compound  or  mixture: 

"Twenty-five  pounds  saltpetre,  one  bushel  of  common  salt  and  one  quart 
of  carbolic  acid,  one  gallon  on  each  layer  of  the  rich  soil.  Then  dilute  the 
carbolic  acid  in  ten  times  the  amount  of  water,  and  sprinkle  each  layer. 
Then  fill  in  another  layer  of  rich  soil  and  straw,  and  apply  another  sprinkle  of 
the  compound,  and  continue  as  above  stated  six  inches  of  loam  and  another 
sprinkle  of  compound  until  the  pit  is  filled  to  the  surface  of  the  ground. 
Then  floor  the  stall  or  stable  by  laying  small  poles  on  the  compound  and 
floor  the  stable.  The  stock  should  be  kept  in  the  stall  six  months.  The 
drainage  of  the  stock  and  stall  adds  a  great  deal  to  the  compound.  This  is 
the  single  process  of  compounding  the  Farmers  Compound  Fertilizer. 

"Then  construct  alongside  of  stables  a  pen  or  pens  with  water  tight  floor, 
slanting  downward.     Place  a  V  trough  by  the  side  of  pens  to  catch  the  con- 


304 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

tents  of  said  pen  and  run  off  in  a  barrel.  Fill  the  pens  with  barnyard,  chip 
manure,  tobacco  stalks  or  any  rubbish,  leave  the  pens  uncovered.  Construct 
by  trough,  the  water  from  eaves  of  barn  or  stables  into  the  pens.  Care  should 
be  taken  not  to  let  too  much  water  go  into  the  pens.  Thus  you  have  a  com- 
plete leaching  system.  When  the  barrels  are  filled  with  lye  from  the  pens 
it  should  be  poured  in  stall  or  stable  and  sink  into  the  pit  with  the  com- 
pound. This  is  the  double  process  of  manufacturing  the  Farmers  Com- 
pound Fertilizer. 

STOCK  IN  THE  STALL  IS  A  GOOD  CONDUCTOR  OF 

amonia  from  the  air.  Established  by  which  the  amonia  phosphoric  acid  and 
Potash  from  the  solid  manure,  is  conducted  into  the  pit  under  the  stall  or 
stables  and  is  there  joined  by  the  same  ingredients  in  a  safer  and  more  abund- 
ant form,  from  the  liquid  manure  deposited  by  the  stock :  making  a  powerful 
and  available  plant  food  in  a  much  more  concentrated  and  availible  form  than 
is  found  in  high  priced  commercial  fertilizers.  At  the  end  of  six  months 
your  pits  are  ready  to  throw  out,  the  contents  of  which  has  by  this  time  be- 
come out  as  black  as  ink  and  as  strong  as  lye.  If  you  now  want  to  use  this 
through  a  drill  it  will  be  necessary  to  dry  by  spreading  thinly  on  barn  lot  or 
floor  and  run  through  a  sieve,  or  what  is  better,  if  you  have  one,  an  old  fan- 
ning mill.  If  you  wish  to  use  in  the  drill  on  any  crop  when  a  drill  is  not  nec- 
essary the  drying  sieving  may  be  dispensed  with.  An  ordinary  stable,  say 
10x14  feet  will  furnish  200  bushels  of  the  compound  sufficient  to  fertilize 
20,000  hills  of  tobacco  or  twenty  acres  of  wheat  with  the  highest  grade  fer- 
tilizer known  to  science.  The  public  is  warned  not  to  infringe  upon  my  in- 
vention unless  they  are  authorized  by  myself  or  lawful  agents,  for  my  rights 
must  be  respected. 

Copyright  secured. 

I.  J.  BRITAIN,  WINSTON,  N.  C." 

We  have  copied  this  singular  circular  in  full,  spelling,  punctuation  and 
all,  to  show  with  what  sort  of  stuff  some  men  try  to  fool  farmers  The  bulletin 
well  says  that  the  prominent  statement  that  "stock  in  the  stall  is  a  good  con- 
ductor of  amonia  from  the  air"  is  not  true.  Neither  is  the  statement  that 
the  result  of  all  this  waste  of  time  and  labor  is  a  powerful  and  available  plant 
food  in  a  much  more  concentrated  form  than  is  found  in  high  priced  fertil- 
izers, true.  Still  further  from  the  truth  is  the  statement  that  the  mixture 
is  "the  highest  grade  fertilizer  known  to  science,"  for  it  is  nothing  of  the  sort. 
Inquiry  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  reveals  the  fact  that  their  indexes  do  not 


Frauds  in  Fertilizers — 305 

show  any  entry  qf  a  copyright  for  the  process  of  compounding  the  Farmers' 
Compound  Fertilizer  by  I.  J.  Britain.  The  directions  are  a  jumble  which  no 
one  can  follow.  He  uses  25  pounds  of  saltpetre,  or  nitrate  of  potash  The 
nitrogen  and  potash  can  be  had  in  far  cheaper  forms.  The  bushel  of  common 
salt  is  of  no  use  whatever.  Carbolic  acid  is  used,  and  this  is  of  no  value  as 
plant  food,  and,  in  fact,  would  be  a  preservative  from  decay  and  a  hindrance 
to  germination.  But  the  whole  process  is  so  absurd  |ind  wasteful  of  time  and 
labor  that  it  would  seem  it  is  only  needed  to  state  it  to  see  this.  But  many 
simple  minded  folks  are  annually  caught  by  just  such  pretenders,  and  our 
lists  of  humbugs  would  hardly  be  complete  without  this  one,  which  flourishes 
close  to  the  home  of  the  author. 

The  way  to  deal  with  all  these  secret  process  fellows  is  to  report  them  at 
once  to  your  Experiment  Station,  and  their  secret  will  be  gotten,  and  pub- 
lished and  shown  up  in  its  true  colors.  There  is  not  a  Station  in  any  of  the 
States  that  will  not  furnish,  free  of  charge,  correct  formulas  for  the  mixing 
of  concentrated  fertilizers  to  the  farmers  of  the  State  on  application.  As  we 
have  said,  it  is  the  men  who  do  not  read  and  do  not  take  the  agricultural 
papers  who  get  caught  with  these  baits,  and  pay  far  more  than  the  correct 
information  to  be  gained  by  reading  would  cost  them. 


CHAPTER  XLII. 

THE  STRAWBERRY  AS  A  FIELD  CROP. 

The  great  extension  southward  of  the  culture  of  the  strawberry  as  a  mar- 
ket crop  has  made  its  proper  fertilization  a  matter  of  great  importance  to  the 
growers.  There  is  now  a  regular  succession  of  the  strawberry,  from  the  earli- 
est that  come  from  Florida  to  the  latest  that  reach  the  great  cities  of  the 
North  from  points  north  of  their  latitude.  At  the  distant  points  the  growers 
are,  of  course,  entirety  dependent  upon  commercial  fertilizers  for  the  produc- 
tion of  the  crop,  and  they  have  found  that  the  strawberry  needs  liberal  feed- 
ing. Fortunately  the  soils  on  which  the  strawberry  thrives  best  are  also  the 
soils  on  which  commercial  fertilizers  have  their  best  effect.  Low,  flat  lands, 
where  the  permanent  moisture  is  not  far  below  the  surface,  and  where  the 
soil  is  well  filled  with  humus,  are  always  the  best  soils  for  the  strawberry, 
and  even  where  they  seem  less  fertile  than  the  dry  uplands  they  will  produce 
better  crops  of  strawberries  simply  by  reason  of  the  presence  of  moisture  al- 
ways in  reach.  Not  that  strawberry  lands  should  not  be  well  drained,  but 
that  the  soil  should  have  the  water  table  not  too  far  down,  so  that  capillary 
moisture  can  always  be  depended  upon. 

MANURIAL  REQUIREMENTS  OF  THE  STRAWBERRY. 

As  in  most  fruits  and  vegetables  potash  plays  an  important  part  in  the 
production  of  the  fruit  of  the  strawberry,  while  phosphoric  acid  is  the  eon- 
trolling  factor  in  the  growth  of  the  plants  and  the  maturity  and  firmness  of 
the  fruit.  While  a  due  percentage  of  nitrogen  is  needed  for  a  luxuriant 
growth,  an  excess  of  this  element  will  be  apt  to  cause  the  fruit  to  be  soft,  and 
to  carry  badly.  We  can  see,  therefore,  that  the  crop  demands  a  well  propor- 
tioned complete  fertilizer  in  which,  with  a  due  percentage  of  nitrogen  there 

(306) 


The  Strawberry  as  a  Field  Crop — 307 

will  be  an  abundant  supply  of  phosphoric  acid  and  potash.  As  the  plant 
analysis  shows  the  need  of  the  plant  for  potash,  and  the  soils  in  which  the 
market  culture  of  the  strawberry,  in  the  South  especially,  are  deficient  in  this 
constituent,  the  percentage  and  form  of  the  potash  becomes  an  important 
matter  to  the  strawberry  grower.  While  nitrogen  is  an  important  element, 
we  are  of  the  opinion  that  the  growing  of  a  crop  of  cow  peas  the  summer  be- 
fore planting  the  strawberries  will  usually  supply  a  sufficient  amount  of  ni- 
trogen for  the  first  growth  of  the  plants,  and  that  subsequent  growth  can  be 
maintained  by  top  dressings  of  nitrate  of  soda.  The  growing  of  the  peas 
will  not  only  supply  nitrogen  forming  organic  matter,  but  will  make  a  profita- 
ble forage  crop  to  precede  the  strawberries,  and  a  large  part  of  the  phosphoric 
acid  and  potash  needed  by  the  strawberries,  can  be  advantageously  applied  to 
the  pea  crop  to  encourage  its  growth,  and  to  enable  the  plant  to  do  the  great- 
est possible  amount  of  nitrogen  catching  for  the  strawberries.  The  common 
practice  of  the  strawberry  growers  in  the  South  is  to  set  the  plants  in  August 
or  September,  and  to  heavily  fertilize  the  ground  so  as  to  get  a  fair  crop  of 
fruit  the  following  spring.  In  the  spring,  as  growth  begins,  a  top  dress- 
ing of  nitrate  of  soda  is  added.  The  plants  are  allowed  to  mat  along  the  rows, 
and  to  bear  a  crop  the  following  year,  after  which  they  are  plowed  under. 
In  this  system  a  field  is  planted  every  year,  so  as  to  have  always  one  to  turn 
under  after  the  crop  is  off.  But  owing  to  the  fact  that  there  is  apt  to  be  long 
continued  dry  weather  at  the  time  usually  selected  for  planting,  many  growers 
are  making  a  practice  of  setting  later  in  the  fall,  even  in  November  and  De- 
cember whenever  the  ground  is  not  actually  frozen.  In  the  North,  there  is  no 
doubt  we  believe  that  spring  is  the  best  time  to  set  the  plants,  but  here  our 
finest  success  has  been  from  November  setting.  We  once  set  a  patch  of  straw- 
berries in  November  and  cold  weather  set  in  at  once,  but  no  harm  was  done, 
and  much  to  my  surprise  the  plants  set  a  very  good  crop  of  fruit  in  the  spring, 
and  were  so  well  grown  that  we  allowed  it  to  ripen.  If  we  were  at  all  certain 
of  seasonable  weather  in  September,  we  would  prefer  that  month  for  the  set- 
ting to  any  other,  but  we  are  usually  compelled  by  reason  of  the  drought  to 
be  later  in  setting. 

Fertilizer  formula  for  the  strawberry :  Acid  phosphate,  900  pounds ;  cotton 
seed  meal,  700  pounds ;  nitrate  of  soda,  200  pounds ;  sulphate  of  potash,  200 
pounds.  Of  this  the  best  growers  would  use  not  less  than  1,000  pounds  per 
acre,  on  land  where  no  previous  crop  of  peas  has  been  grown.  Where  a 
growth  of  dead  pea  vines  has  been  plowed  under,  the  amount  of  organic 
nitrogen  in  the  shape  of  cotton  seed  meal  can  be  dispensed  with ;  and  the  ni- 
trate of  soda  should  be  reserved  for  the  spring  dressing  where  the  plants  are 
set  late  in  the  fall. 


308 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

forcing  the  strawberry. 

There  is  no  fruit  so  easily  and  profitably  forced  under  glass  in  winter 
as  the  strawberry.  But  let  no  inexperienced  person  suppose  that  a 
strawberry  plant  can  be  taken  up  in  the  fall,  placed  under  glass  and  given 
a  forcing  temperature  and  succeed.  For  the  purpose  of  forcing,  the  plants 
need  to  be  grown  for  months  previous,  and  properly  handled  so  as  to  make 
strong  crowns  that  will  bloom  and  fruit  well.  We  always  force  strawberries 
in  six-inch  flower  pots.  We  begin  with  the  first  rooted  runners  in  early  sum- 
mer. As  soon  as  these  have  started  to  form  white  roots  an  inch  long  we  take 
them  up  and  set  them  in  three-inch  pots,  in  the  ordinary  compost  of  rotted 
sods  and  manure  which  we  use  for  general  greenhouse  potting.  The  plants 
are  set  in  a  frame  on  a  bed  of  coal  ashes  to  prevent  the  earth  worms  from  get- 
ting in,  and  are  shaded  with  lath  screens  in  place  of  sashes,  thus  giving  them 
a  varying  shade  and  sunlight ;  and  special  attention  is  given  to  the  supplying 
of  the  plants  with  water.  As  soon  as  the  roots  have  matted  around  the  balls 
of  earth  in  these  pots,  they  are  transferred  to  the  4-inch  size,  replaced  in  the 
frame  and  treated  as  before.  Then,  as  soon  as  the  4-inch  pots  are  well 
filled  with  roots,  they  are  again  repotted  into  six-inch  pots  in  which  they  will 
be  fruited.  These  pots  are  now  plunged  to  the  rim  in  the  coal  ashes  and  at- 
tended to  carefully.  As  the  pots  get  well  filled  with  roots  some  liquid  ma- 
manure  is  applied,  once  a  week,  to  encourage  a  luxuriant  growth  and  to  aid  in 
the  formation  of  strong  crowns,  for  no  weak  plant  can  be  successfully  forced. 
As  cold  weather  approaches  less  water  is  given,  the  plants  are  allowed  to  be- 
come semi-dormant,  and  are  allowed  to  be  exposed  to  the  frost  for  a  while, 
since  the  forcing  must  be  preceded  by  a  short  period  of  rest.  The  first  plants 
are  put  in  the  houses  in  December.  All  the  old  leaves  are  trimmed  off,  the 
plants  well  watered  and  started  in  growth  with  a  night  temperature  of  about 
45  degrees,  and  kept  moderately  cool  in  day  time.  As  they  begin  a  new 
growth  we  give,  once  a  week,  a  watering  with  a  solution  of  an  ounce  of  nitrate 
of  soda  to  four  gallons  of  water,  taking  care  to  apply  it  only  when  the  plants 
are  moist  at  the  root  and  not  when  needing  water,  and  to  pour  it  on  the  soil 
and  not  over  the  foliage.  See  that  the  drainage  of  the  pots  is  right  so  that  the 
abundant  watering  that  is  needed  will  not  sour  the  soil.  The  side  bench  of 
the  house  near  the  glass  is  the  best  position  for  the  plants.  As  the  blossoms 
appear  it  is  well  to  brush  them  over  daily  at  noon  with  a  camel's  hair  brush, 
to  insure  fertilization;  and  no  variety  should  be  forced  unless  it  has  perfect 
flowers,  and  it  is  naturally  an  early  bloomer  in  the  open  ground.  Flowers 
of  sulphur  dusted  on  the  hot  water  pipes  is  valuable  for  keeping  down  fungus 
troubles.     Do  not  pack  the  pots  so  closely  as  to  touch  each  other,  but  have  a 


The  Strawberry  as  a  Field  Crop — 309 

space  of  two  inches  around  every  pot.  Carefully  avoid  watering  overhead, 
on  the  whole  plant,  when  blooming,  but  always  apply  water  by  pouring  it 
under  the  leaves.  When  well  grown,  and  the  variety  is  a  good  one,  the  crop 
should  be  a  profitable  one.  They  are  sold  in  paper  boxes  holding  half  a  pint. 
We  have  found,  as  with  the  tomato,  that  bone  dust  added  to  the  soil  is  better 
than  stable  manure,  though  the  ordinary  potting  compost,  if  old  and  well 
rotted,  answers  very  well.  If  earth  worms  get  into  the  pots  they  will  paste 
the  soil  together  and  cause  it  to  sour.  If  there  is  evidence  of  their  presence 
pour  a  little  lime  water  on  the  pot  to  draw  them  out,  and  at  the  same  time 
sweeten  the  soil.  The  plants  that  have  been  forced  in  winter  can  be  planted 
in  the  open  ground  in  the  spring  and  will  make  a  late  crop  there  as  they  get 
into  growth.  During  their  growth  in  preparation  during  summer,  and  in  the 
house  in  winter,  it  is  needless  to  add  that  no  runners  should  be  allowed  to 
grow ;  and  the  keeping  of  them  off  will  be  one  of  the  chief  attentions  needed 
in  the  preparation  of  the  plants,  aside  from  keeping  the  pots  watered  and 
free  from  weeds. 


CHAPTER  XLIII. 

BLACKBERRIES  AND  RASPBERRIES. 

The  requirements  of  these  are  so  similar  that  we  treat  them  together. 
Both  are  fond  of  a  comparatively  heavy  loam^,  but  are  not  very  particular  as 
to  soil,  provided  it  is  in  a  fertile  condition  and  well  supplied  with  humus. 
Plants  of  the  red  raspberry  and  the  blackberry  should  always  be  grown  from 
root  cuttings,  as  such  plants  are  far  better  than  those  from  the  suckers  around 
the  old  plants.  The  black  caps  are  grown  from  tips  of  the  canes,  which 
should  be  buried  along  the  rows  after  the  growth  of  the  season  is  about  ma- 
ture. The  running  blackberry  (or  dewberry)  can  be  grown  in  the  same  man- 
ner. We  set  the  plants  in  rows  six  feet  apart  and  three  feet  in  the  rows,  and 
train  to  stakes,  or  to  a  single  wire  stretched  from  the  stakes  about  four  feet 
from  the  ground.  Dewberries  should  be  allowed  to  trail  along  on  the  ground 
along  the  rows  the  first  season,  and  should  not  be  tied  up  until  the  spring  they 
are  to  fruit.  The  best  way  to  train  them  is  to  set  forked  stakes  about  two 
feet  from  the  ground,  and  lay  slender  poles  like  hoop  poles  from  stake  to  stake 
to  which  to  tie  the  vines.  These  poles  are  better  than  wires,  as  the  wire  is 
apt  to  chafe  and  cut  the  canes.  After  the  fruit  is  gathered,  cut  away  the  old 
canes  and  train  out  as  many  new  ones  from  each  stool  as  are  sufficient,  and 
train  them  along  the  rows  out  of  the  way  of  cultivation  and  injury. 

MANURIAL  NEEDS  OF  BLACK  AND  RASPBERRIES. 

If  the  growing  of  peas  or  clover  previous  to  the  strawberry  crop  is  desira- 
ble, it  is  far  more  so  with  the  blackberry  and  the  raspberry,  and  success  will 
not  be  certain  with  these  unless  the  soil  is  kept  well  supplied  with  organic 
matter.  As  they  will  keep  the  ground  longer  than  the  strawberry  this  is 
one  of  the  points  to  look  after  during  their  growth.  We  have  found  it  a  great 
advantage  to  plant  a  single  row  of  cow  peas  between  the  rows  of  blackberries, 
after  the  fruiting  season  is  over,  and  to  cultivate  them  as  long  as  it  is  practi- 
cable, letting  the  whole  growth  die  on  the  land  to  be  plowed  under  in  the 

(310) 


Blackberries  and  Raspberries — 311 

spring.  Treated  in  this  way  there  will  be  no  need  for  the  application  of 
nitrogenous  fertilizers,  but  a  fair  supply  of  the  mineral  elements  should  be 
given  annually,  making  the  mixture  about  4  parts  of  acid  phosphate  to  one 
of  sulphate  of  potash.  Allow  no  more  canes  to  grow  in  the  hill  than  can 
have  room  for  full  development,  and  shorten  them  back  annually,  or,  what  is 
better,  pinch  in  summer  to  induce  the  growth  of  side  shoots  and  to  make 
bushy  canes. 

PROPAGATING  THE  PLANTS. 

Many  growers  depend  on  the  suckers  from  the  base  of  the  blackberry  and 
red  raspberry  plants  for  planting.  But  it  will  be  found  that  far  better  plants 
can  be  grown  from  cuttings  of  the  roots  made  in  the  fall.  We  make  these 
cuttings  about  three  inches  long,  mix  them  in  moist  sand  in  boxes  and  bury 
the  boxes  outdoors  during  the  winter,  with  a  mound  of  earth  over  them  to 
prevent  access  of  water.  They  remain  there  till  early  spring  and  are  then 
planted  in  the  open  ground  in  rows  wide  enough  for  horse  cultivation,  and 
dropped  about  four  inches  in  the  rows.  These  root  cuttings  make  a  strong 
growth  during  the  summer,  and  are  far  better  plants  than  those  cut  from 
the  old  plants  as  suckers.  With  new  and  rare  varieties  that  are  high  priced 
we  have  adopted  another  and  more  rapid  way.  Years  ago  when  there  was  a 
furor  over  the  Herstine  raspberry  a  friend  bought  two  large  plants  for  which 
he  paid  $5.  He  received  them  late  in  the  fall  and  asked  me  how  he  had  better 
treat  them.  I  told  him  that  if  he  would  give  me  the  plants  I  would  propagate 
them  and  give  him  one-half  the  plants  I  made,  as  T  thought  I  could  put  him 
just  as  far  ahead  in  the  spring  as  with  the  plants  he  had.  He  brought  me 
the  plants,  which  were  very  fine  ones,  with  long  roots.  These  were  cut  into 
pieces  about  an  inch  long,  placed  thickly  in  shallow  boxes  of  light  soil,  and 
covered  half  an  inch.  The  boxes  were  then  placed  on  the  propagating  bench 
in  the  greenhouse,  where  there  was  a  good  bottom  heat.  There  they  started 
rapidly  and  as  soon  as  leaves  developed  were  set  in  two  and  a  half  inch  pots, 
with  the  ordinary  potting  compost,  and  placed  in  a  cool  greenhouse,  and  a  lit- 
tle later  were  shifted  into  three-inch  pots.  By  the  time  frost  was  over  in  the 
spring  I  liad  250  strong  plants  with  tops  a  foot  or  more  high,  and  these, 
planted  in  the  open  ground,  each,  during  the  summer,  made  a  plant  as  strong 
as  we  would  have  had  from  the  original  plant  had  it  been  set,  and  we  had 
250  plants  instead  of  two  for  the  $5.  Of  course,  with  raspberry  plants  at  the 
usual  price  per  thousand  it  would  hardly  pay  to  adopt  this  method,  but  with 
plants  selling  at  fancy  prices  it  will  enable  the  grower  to  get  a  stock  in  advance 
of  the  lower  rates.  Blackberries  are  propagated  from  root  cuttings  in  the 
same  way  as  red  raspberries. 


312 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

Blackcap  raspberries  are  grown  from  the  tips  of  the  canes,  which  are 
covered  with  soil  in  summer  and  by  fall  have  formed  a  strong  plant,  which 
can  be  then  separated  from  the  cane.  Some  of  the  blackberry  family,  such 
«s  the  dewberry,  are  also  grown  from  the  tips.  Raspberries  are  far  more  diffi- 
cult to  grow  in  the  South  than  they  are  in  the  North,  and  require  for  their 
best  success  a  moist  soil  and  partial  shade  during  the  heat  of  the  day.  The 
blackcaps  are  far  more  certain  croppers  in  the  South  than  the  red  raspberries, 
but  the  red  varieties  can  be  grown  if  attention  is  paid  to  the  summer  pinching 
of  the  canes  to  induce  a  bushy  growth,  for  if  long  canes  are  exposed  to  the  sun 
they  will  certainly  be  killed. 

The  Michigan  Experiment  Station  has  published  a  descriptive  catalogue 
of  over  400  varieties  of  raspberries,  which  those  interested  can  get  for  con- 
fcultation. 


CHAPTER  XLIV. 

FERTILIZERS  IN  THE  VINEYARD  AND  ORCHARD. 

After  years  of  patient  experiment  in  the  growing  of  grapes  with  commer- 
cial fertilizers  on  a  soil  nearly  pure  sand,  we  think  that  we  have  learned  some- 
thing in  regard  to  the  food  necessities  of  the  vine.  The  soil  of  the  sand  hills 
of  Southern  North  Carolina  was  selected  for  the  series  of  experiments  car- 
ried on  to  determine  the  food  requirements  of  various  fruits  and  tobacco  for 
the  very  reason  that  the  soil  was  nearly  a  barren  sand  and  had  never  been  in 
cultivation,  and  hence  was  not  altered  by  manuring.  These  experiments 
were  conducted  by  the  North  Carolina  Agricultural  Experiment  Station 
through  a  series  of  years,  and  were  managed  with  the  most  minute  care  to 
avoid  any  source  of  error.  The  land  was  cleared  from  the  original  pine 
forest,  and  every  stump  was  dug  up  and  hauled  off  the  land,  since  the  burning 
would  have  made  changes  in  the  food  content  of  portions  of  the  land,  and 
this  we  aimed  to  avoid.  The  little  humus  that  would  naturally  have  collected 
in  a  forest  had  been  regularly  destroyed  by  the  forest  fires  which  annually 
ravaged  that  section.  The  forest  growth  was  long  leaf  pine  and  scrub  oak, 
and  between  these  the  land  was  covered  with  the  tall  growth  of  wire  grass 
(Aristida  Stricta),  the  great  feeder  of  the  fires.  This  sand  hill  region  has 
been  found  peculiarly  favorable  as  a  winter  home  for  people  suffering  from 
throat  and  lung  diseases,  and  considerable  settlements  have  grown  up  with 
hotels  for  the  transient  guests,  and  many  homes  of  those  who  have  found 
health  there  and  have  remained  to  make  permanent  homes.  These 
residents  made  some  experiments  in  fruit  culture,  at  first  only  with  grapes, 
and  they  found  that  with  the  aid  of  fertilizers  the  apparently  barren  sand 
grew  grapes  in  wonderful  profusion  and  of  remarkably  fine  quality.  Later 
on  other  fruits  were  attempted,  and  now  the  peach  is  the  leading  market  fruit. 
The  experiments  were  inaugurated  for  the  purpose  of  studying  the  needs  of 
the  various  fruits  as  to  food,  and  to  show  the  growers  how  most  economically 
to  grow  the  fruit.  Of  course  the  amounts  applied  on  such  a  soil  are  no  indi- 
cation of  what  should  be  applied  on  a  different  soil  and  in  a  different  climate. 

(313) 


314 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

Still,  the  evidence  is  that  trees  and  vines,  like  other  plants,  need  a  proper  pro- 
portion of  all  the  leading  forms  of  plant  food  usually  deficient  in  many 
soils.  The  same  question  arises  in  the  fertilzation  of  fruit  trees  and  grape 
vines  as  with  the  annual  crops.  How  shall  we  accomplish  their  feeding  in  the 
best  and  most  economical  manner,  and  what  forms  of  plant  food  are  most 
generally  needed  by  orchard  and  vineyard  products  ?  We  think  that  our  ex- 
perience has  taught  us  something  in  this  regard. 

FEEDING  THE  APPLE  ORCHARD. 

A  study  of  the  tables  in  the  appendix  to  this  book  will  show  that  in  the 
leaves  of  the  apple  and  the  whole  structure  of  the  tree,  the  chief  needs  are 
nitrogen  and  potash,  while  in  the  fruit  potash  takes  the  lead,  and  phosphoric 
acid  cuts  a  small  figure.  The  complaint  is  general  in  most  parts  of  the 
country,  that  apples  do  not  grow  as  they  formerly  did.  Men  keep  an  apple 
orchard  and  make  a  hay  field  or  a  pasture  of  it,  and  expect  the  soil  to  continue 
to  give  them  fruit  while  in  every  crop  they  are  taking  away  from  the  soil  the 
plant  food  the  trees  need.  It  is  easy  to  convince  farmers  of  the  need  for  using 
fertilizers  on  their  wheat,  oats  and  corn  crops,  but  most  of  them  seem  to  im- 
agine that  an  apple  tree  does  not  need  feeding,  but  can  take  care  of  itself 
like  the  trees  of  the  forest.  The  great  reason  for  the  failure  of  apples  where 
they  once  did  well  is  the  depletion  of  the  soil  of  the  mineral  matters  which  the 
trees  need. 

A  crop  of  apples  of  fair  proportions  will  remove  more  potash  from  the 
soil  than  three  good  crops  of  wheat.  No  farmer  would  be  surprised  that 
wheat  finally  fails  to  grow  on  land  receiving  no  fertilizer,  but  the  idea  of  ap- 
plying fertilizers  to  apple  trees  never  seems  to  occur  to  them.  There  are 
endless  theories  in  regard  to  the  proper  method  of  planting,  pruning  and  feed- 
ing apple  trees.  Some  prominent  authorities  insist  that  deep  plowing  during 
the  whole  of  the  tree's  existence  is  essential  to  succcess,  and  point  to  the  old 
apple  orchards  in  sod  as  examples  of  bad  treatment.  To  some  extent  they  are 
right,  for  the  common  method  of  keeping  orchards  in  sod  for  the  purpose  of 
pasturage  or  mowing  hay  from  them  is  certainly  an  evil  practice.  But  there 
is  a  right  way  and  a  wrong  way  of  keeping  trees  in  sod,  as  we  will  endeavor 
to  show. 

PLANTING  AN  APPLE  ORCHARD. 

The  most  common  mistake  made  at  the  start  is  in  planting  trees  too  old. 
Nurserymen  commonly  root-graft  apples  in  winter,  and  set  them  in  nursery 
rows  in  the  spring.     The  first  season's  growth  in  the  nursery  is  a  tall,  straight 


Fertilizers  in  the  Vineyard  and  Orchard — 315 

stem  with  few  or  no  branches.  The  man  who  wishes  to  do  the  best  with  his 
orchard  will  select  these  "maiden/'  or  one-year-old  trees  for  setting.  There 
are  several  advantages  in  this.  The  trees  can  be  had  for  less  money  than 
the  two  or  three  year  trees  commonly  planted.  The  planter  can  start  the  head 
of  his  trees  uniformly,  just  where  he  wants  to  start  it,  and  the  young  tree, 
not  being  crowded  in  a  nursery  row,  can  develop  a  head  of  proper  proportions, 
«nnd  by  the  time  it  has  reached  the  age  at  which  most  people  want  to  plant 
from  the  nursery  it  is  a  far  larger  and  better  proportioned  tree  than  the  one 
left  in  the  nursery  row.  The  nurseryman  heads  back  the*  trees  in  his  rows 
the  second  year,  but  he  does  not  head  them  down  so  low  as  they  should  be  in 
the  orchard ;  and  when  we  plant  a  two  or  three  year  old  tree  we  generally  have 
an  ill  sha})ed  head  started,  and  started  where  we  do  not  want  it.  The  result 
is  that  if  we  are  to  get  the  uniformity  of  head  we  want  there  must  be  a  great 
deal  harder  pruning  done  at  planting  time,  and  the  trees  are  never  as  symmet- 
lical  as  they  would  have  been  had  they  been  planted  as  yearlings  and  properly 
started. 

Writers  on  fruit  culture  have  various  notions  as  to  what  should  be  the 
method  used  in  starting  a  tree  in  the  orchard.  Many  insist  that  the  central 
stem  should  never  be  shortened,  while  others  would  head  back  as  the  nursery- 
men do,  and  form  an  open  headed  tree.       We  certainly  prefer  this  plan. 

Five  years  ago  we  planted  two  apple  trees  of  the  same  variety  within  30 
feet  of  each  other.  The  trees  were  planted  in  a  close  sod  and  have  never 
had  any  cultivation.  They  are  in  a  soil  of  fair  fertility  and  on  a  kwn  near 
a  dwelling.  One  tree  at  planting  was  headed  bnck  to  the  point  where  we 
wished  the  head  to  start;  the  other  had  the  leading  shoot  left,  and  the  side 
branches  merely  shortened.  Both  have  been  properly  pruned  to  keep  the  head 
clear  of  ])ecoming  a  tangle  of  shoots,  and  both  have  grown  fairly  well.  But 
the  tree  headed  back  and  formed  into  a  round,  open  head  has  far  outstripped 
the  other,  is  now  about  twice  the  size  and  bearing  apples,  while  the  other  has 
not  reached  this  stage.  The  headed  back  tree  has  a  trunk  of  not  over  20  inches 
from  the  ground.  The  other  has  a  trunk  of  four  feet.  The  growth  of  the 
tree  headed  back  has  been  rather  phenomenal,  and  is  fully  as  great  as  that 
of  treses  set  at  same  time  in  the  orchard  and  kept  cultivated  annually.  But 
the  lawn  where  it  stands  has  merely  been  mown,  and  nothing  has  been  re- 
moved from  the  soil.  All  the  grass  decays  where  it  falls,  and  no  manure  of 
any  kind  has  been  given  to  either  tree,  but  there  will  be  some  applied  now  that 
they  are  getting  into  bearing.  It  seems  evident,  however,  that  the  decaying 
organic  matter  from  the  gi'ass  has  furnished  the  trees  all  the  nitrogen  they 
needed,  since  all  the  organic  matter  produced  has  been  returned  to  the  soil,  and 
they  will  need  only  light  dressings  of  acid  phosphate  and  plenty  of  potash.     I 


316 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

said  they  had  had  no  manure,  but  they  have  been  twice  limed,  and  this  has, 
of  course,  helped  in  the  nitrification  of  the  organic  matter,  and  in  the  release 
of  potash  from  the  clay  soil  in  which  they  stand. 

Still,  while  it  is  evident  that  apple  trees  can  be  planted  in  sod  and  do 
well,  we  do  not  think  that  this  one  instance  warrants  us  in  recommending  the 
general  planting  of  apple  trees  in  sod.  What  we  want  in  the  young  tree  for 
the  first  years  of  its  life  is  vigorous  growth,  and  as  a  rule  this  is  promoted 
by  good  cultivation  and  manuring.  But  we  do  object  to  the  advice  given  by 
a  prominent  writer  on  orcharding,  to  plow  and  cultivate  the  orchard  deeply 
so  as  to  force  the  roots  down  in  the  soil.  We  prefer  to  work  all  plants  shal- 
lowly,  so  as  to  keep  the  roots  in  the  best  soil  and  in  reach  of  the  influences  of 
the  air  and  fertilizers,  and  not  to  force  the  roots  of  trees  down  into  the  unim- 
proved and  unaerated  subsoil.  If  the  roots  are  forced  down  by  deep  cultiva- 
tion there  must  inevitably  be  a  great  loss  of  the  fertilizing  matters  applied 
before  the  deep  set  roots  can  get  the  benefit  of  them.  Prepare  the  soil  deeply 
and  well  before  planting  and  then  cultivate  shallowly,  every  summer  till 
July,  until  the  trees  get  into  a  bearing  state,  and  then  put  the  orchard  in 
grass  and  treat  it  as  you  would  a  lawn,  by  frequent  mowing  and  letting  the 
cut  grass  lie  to  help  the  trees.  In  short,  plant  and  grow  an  upple  orchard 
for  apples  alone,  and  you  will  get  them. 

STARTING  THE  TREES. 

Having  selected  one-year-old  trees  with  a  single  stem,  we  prune  all  the 
roots  that  have  become  in  any  way  bruised  or  broken  in  digging,  and  cut 
off  all  the  fibrous  roots,  as  they  are  commonly  dried  up.  Make  the  holes 
no  deeper  than  the  plowing  was  done,  for  a  deep  hole  in  the  hard  subsoil  will 
simply  be  a  reservoir  for  the  water  to  settle  in  and  damage  the  roots.  Put 
no  manure  of  any  kind  around  the  roots  of  a  young  tree,  but  smiply  put  the 
surface  soil  in  the  bottom  and  work  it  in  among  the  roots,  and  then  ram  the 
earth  as  though  you  were  setting  a  post.  Never  pour  water  in  the  holes  to 
settle  the  earth,  for  the  wet  earth  will  crack  and  admit  air  in  drying.  A  good 
ramming  of  moderately  dry  soil  is  all  that  is  needed.  In  the  Xorth  it  is 
probable  that  spring  planting  will  be  best,  but  anywhere  south  of  Pennsyl- 
vania we  would,  as  a  rule,  set  trees  in  the  fall.  Nurserymen  advise  planters 
to  get  the  trees  in  the  fall,  even  if  they  set  them  in  the  spring,  and  heel  them 
in  ready  for  planting;  the  recommendation  is  mainly  for  the  convenience 
of  the  nurserymen,  for  we  had  rather  plant  than  heel  in. 

Having 'set  the  trees,  the  next  thing  is  to  head  them  back  to  the  point 
where  you  wish  the  head  to  start.  Low  headed  orchard  trees  are  best  in  any 
locality,  and  south  of  the  Potomac  no  orchard  tree  should  hiive  a  stem  of  over 


Fertilizers  in  the  Vineyard  and  Orchard — 317 

two*  feet,  and  we  make  ours  about  20  inches.  Farmers  say  they  want  the 
trees  tall  enough  to  get  under  in  cultivating.  The  fact  is  that  there  is  no 
need  for  getting  under  them,  for  if  the  cultivation  reaches  the  outer  branches 
it  is  sufficient ;  for  the  feeding  roots  of  a  tree  are  all,  as  a  rule,  out  where  the 
drip  falls  and  beyond,  and  there  is  the  place  where  cultivation  and  manur- 
ing are  needed.  Therefore  we  head  back  the  young  tree  to  the  height  we 
want  the  stem.  The  low  head  protects  the  stem  of  the  tree  from  the  hot  sun 
and  the  trees  do  not  get  blown  over  as  tall  stemmed  ones  are  sure  to  be.  When 
growth  begins  in  the  spring  we  select  the  three  or  four  best  situated  buds 
that  start  near  the  top  as  the  limbs  of  the  future  tree,  and  rub  off  all 
others;  and  allow  no  others  to  start  during  the  summer  but  those  we  have 
selected  for  the  main  limbs.  These,  at  the  next  pruning  in  winter,  are  short- 
ened back  to  make  them  branch  and  gradually  form  a  round  aiui  open  headed 
tree,  and  care  is  afterwards  taken  that  no  sappy  sprouts  are  allowed  to  grow 
in  the  centre  of  the  tree.  These  are  rubbed  out  as  soon  as  they  start,  so  as  to 
throw  the  whole  strength  of  the  tree  into  the  desirable  form.  An  orchard 
started  in  this  way  will  seldom  need  any  pruning  at  all  after  it  gets  to  a  bear- 
ing size,  except  keeping  out  the  water  sprouts  in  the  centre  and  around  the 
base  of  the  tree. 

We  have  given  these  methods  of  practice  as  a  necessary  preliminary  for 
the  feeding  of  the  orchard.  We  have  said  that  the  feeding  roots  are  out 
where  the  limbs  reach.  There  is,  then,  little  use  for  putting  manure  or  fer- 
tilizers up  against  the  stem  of  the  tree  after  it  has  developed  much  top.  In 
our  experiments  at  Southern  Pines,  N.  C,  we  proportioned  the  amount  of  fer- 
tilizer applied  to  the  size  of  the  tree,  and  did  not  apply  it  all  over  the  ground 
until  the  roots  of  the  trees  had  occupied  the  land  between  the  rows.  We 
began  by  applying  the  fertilizer  to  a  small  circle  around  the  tree,  making 
the  amount  applied  proportionate  to  the  space  occupied  by  the  roots,  and 
enlarged  the  circle  every  year  as  the  roots  extended.  In  ordinary  orchard 
culture  this  minute  care,  is,  of  course,  not  needed,  and  as  some  crops  are  com- 
monly grown  between  the  rows  the  whole  soil  should  be  fertilized  at  once. 

cultivating  and  cropping  the  orchard 

There  can  be  no  possible  objection  to  the  growing  of  vegetable  crops  in 
a  young  orchard  to  help  in  paying  the  expense  of  cultivation;  but  the  com- 
mon practice  of  planting  the  orchard  in  corn  is  objectionable.  Tall  growing 
plants  like  Indian  com  and  the  like,  which  occupy  the  land  during  the  whole 
summer,  are  objectionable  for  more  than  one  reason.  The  crowding  prevents 
the  proper  development  of  the  head  of  the  tree,  and  the  wide  reaching  roots 
rob  the  soil  of  too  much  moisture.     Low  growing  crops  that  occupy  the  lancj 


318 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

during  the  earlier  part  of  the  summer,  like  early  Irish  potatoes  and  other 
early  garden  crops,  are  far  better,  for  all  cultivation  in  the  orchard  should 
cease  by  the  first  of  July;  and  then  some  soil  cover  crop  like  crimson  clover 
should  be  sown,  to  keep  a  green  cover  on  the  land  during  the  winter  and  to 
plow  under  for  the  furnishing  of  the  organic  matter  that  is  to  supply  the 
trees  with  the  needed  nitrogen.  It  is  a  good  plan  to  set  a  stout  stake  on  each 
side  of  the  tr^e  a  foot  or  more  high  in  the  line  of  cultivation,  to  prevent  a 
careless  plowman  from  striking  the  trees  with  the  singletree.  What  wc  want 
in  the  trees  is  a  good  but  not  too  rank  and  sappy  a  growth.  Therefore,  as 
a  rule,  we  would  avoid  the  use  of  stable  manure  and  depend  on  the  promotion 
of  the  growth  of  the  legumes  by  liberal  applications  of  phosphoric  acid  and 
potash,  to  furnish  all  the  nitrogen  needed.  In  fact  this  will,  in  a  few  years, 
be  found  a  superabundance,  and  after  the  orchard  is  put  in  grass  there  will 
be  no  need  for  any  nitrogenous  application,  but  liberal  applications  of  potash 
and  phosphoric  acid  will  be  needed  to  replace  the  mineral  matter  carried  away 
in  the  fruit.  An  orchard  in  a  mown  sod  on  which  no  animal  is  allowed  to  graze 
and  from  which  no  grass  is  taken  away,  will  be  longer  lived,  more  healthy 
and  fruitful  than  a  cultivated  orchard,  if  the  mineral  matters  are  kept  sup- 
plied to  the  soil.  The  outcry  against  orchards  in  grass  on  the  part  of  some 
writers  has  been  caused  by  the  old  method  (or  lack  of  method)  with  orchards 
in  grass.  We  wish  to  especially  impress  upon  our  readers  that  it  is  not  this 
kind  of  grass-orcharding  we  advise,  but  the  keeping  of  the  orchard  in  grass 
purely  for  the  benefit  of  the  trees.  The  grass,  mowed  frequently  during  the 
growing  season,  will  be  constantly  adding  humus  to  the  soil,  and  tending  to 
promote  rather  than  impair  the  moisture  content.  The  fertility  of  the  soil 
must  be  kept  up  by  regular  applications  of  phosphoric  acid  and  potash,  and 
if  this  is  done  the  soil  loses  nothing  but  what  is  carried  oft'  m  the  fruit,  and 
the  fertilizers  applied  will  more  than  make  good  this  loss.  Another  advant- 
age in  this  method  of  keeping  an  orchard  in  grass  is  the  fact  that  a  soft 
cushion  is  formed  under  the  trees,  and  the  windfalls  are  not  bruised.  In  fact, 
if  the  trees  are  headed  as  low  as  we  advise  there  will  be  little  trouble  in  gather- 
ing the  greater  part  of  the  fruit  without  ladders.  An  annual  dressing  of  the 
following  mixture  will  keep  the  grass  in  fine  condition,  and  the  dead  grass 
itself  will  furnish  organic  matter,  forming  nitrogen  sufficient  for  the  trees. 

Acid  phosphate,  1,600  pounds;  muriate  of  potash,  400  pounds  to  make  a 
ton.  Of  this  use  400  pounds  per  acre  annually  in  bearing  years  at  least.  If 
at  any  time  there  should  be  evidence  of  lack  of  vigor  in  the  trees,  replace  the 
acid  phosphate  with  raw  bone  meal,  which  will  furnish  about  4  per  cent, 
nitrogen.  One  caution  about  the  distances  for  planting.  Most  of  our  apple 
trees  will  do  better  planted  not  less  than  35  feet  apart  each  way.     Crowding 


Fertilizers  in  the  Vineyard  and  Orchard — 319 

is  a  general  fault  with  inexperienced  planters.     On  very  fertile  soil  even  a 
wider  distance  will  be  better. 

ANALYSIS  OF  THE  APPLE  TREE  AND  ITS  PRODUCTS. 

Apple  leaves  collected  in  May  contain  water,  72.36  per  cent.;  ash,  2.33 
per  cent. ;  nitrogen,  0.74  per  cent. ;  phosphoric  acid,  0.25  per  cent.,  and  potash, 
0.25  per  cent.  Collected  in  September  they  contain  water,  60.71  per  cent. ; 
ash,  3.4G  per  cent.;  nitrogen,  0.89  per  cent.;  phosphoric  acid,  0.19  per  cent., 
and  potash,  0.39  per  cent.  The  fruit  of  the  apple  contains  85.30  per  cent, 
of  water,  0.39  per  cent,  of  ash,  0.13  per  cent,  of  nitrogen,  0.01  per  cent,  of 
phosphoric  acid  and  0.19  per  cent,  of  potash.  The  wood  of  the  whole  tree, 
roots  and  branches,  averages  (50.83  per  cent  water,  1.50  per  cent,  ash,  0.35  per 
cent,  nitrogen,  0.05  per  cent,  phosphoric  acid,  and  0.17  per  cent,  potash. 

Estimating  40  such  trees  per  acre,  there  would  be  removed  from  the  soil 
in  a  crop  of  ten  bushels  per  tree,  in  the  fruit  alone,  32  pounds  of  nitrogen, 
8  pounds  of  phosphoric  acid,  and  45.6  pounds  of  potash. 

A  crop  of  wheat  of  twenty  bushels  per  acre  removes  from  the  soil  in 
grain  and  straw  about  29  pounds  of  nitrogen*,  9  pounds  of  phosphoric  acid  and 
5  pounds  of  potash.  It  will  be  seen  then  that  the  draft  on  the  soil,  especially 
in  potash,  is  far  heavier  from  a  crop  of  apples  than  a  crop  of  wheat.  It  has 
taken  a  large  amount  of  plant  food  to  build  up  a  big  tree,  and  to  supply  its  an- 
nual crop  of  leaves  and  fruit;  and  in  most  cases  the  owner  of  the  orchard 
expects  to  get  a  crop  of  hay  or  pastureage  from  the  orchard,  too.  And  then 
we  hear  people  wonder  why  they  do  not  get  fruit  as  their  fathers  did  on  the 
same  farm.  They  manure  their  wheat,  but  starve  the  orchard  which  is  draw- 
ing on  the  mineral  resources  of  the  soil  more  than  three  times  as  much  as  the 
wheat  is. 

To  supply  the  manurial  needs  of  the  fruit  alone  on  a  bearing  orchard 
as  above,  would  require  per  acre  200  pounds  of  nitrate  of  soda,  60  pounds  of 
acid  phosphate  and  100  pounds  of  muriate  of  potash.  If,  however,  the 
orchard  is  in  sod  and  the  grass  is  kept  mown  for  the  benefit  of  the  trees,  there 
will  not  be  the  need  for  that  amount  of  nitrogen,  as  there  will  be  a  large 
amount  of  organic  matter  returned  to  the  soil,  and  for  the  benefit  of  the  trees 
themselves  we  would  increase  the  amount  of  phosphoric  acid,  and  make  the 
dressing  of  nitrogen  in  the  form  of  tankage  or  cotton  seed  meal,  and  use 
300  pounds  of  acid  phosphate,  200  pounds  of  cotton  seed  meal  and  100 
pounds  of  muriate  of  potash  per  acre.  Or  it  might  be  as  well  to  put  the  phos- 
phoric acid  in  the  form  of  floats  or  pulverized  rock,  which  would  be  more 
slowly  available  it  is  true,  but  would,  nevertheless  probably  be  better  for  trees 
than  the  more  readily  available  acid  phosphates. 


CHAPTER  XLV. 
THE  PEAR. 

The  climate  and  soils  of  the  Atlantic  coast  of  the  United  States,  from 
Boston  to  Cape  Hatteras,  are  peculiarly  adapted  to  the  successful  culture  of  the 
pear,  and  the  section  of  this  range  best  adapted  to  pears  is  that  known  as  the 
Delaware  and  Maryland  Peninsula.  In  this  favored  region  the  pear  attains 
a  size  and  quality  unknown  in  most  other  sections.  We  once  showed  pears 
from  the  eastern  side  of  the  Chesapeake  Bay,  at  an  exhibition  in  Baltimore, 
in  competition  with  the  best  Boston  growers,  and  our  pears  of  the  same  varie- 
ties were  so  far  superior  to  the  Boston  pears  that  the  Boston  men  did  not 
recognize  the  varieties. 

But  the  pear  has  a  wide  range  over  the  country  where  it  will  succeed  very 
well.  It  likes  a  deep  and  fertile  clayey  loam,  and  during  its  early  growth 
should  have  about  the  same  treatment  as  to  feeding  that  we  would  give  the 
apple.  Much  attention  was  formerly  given  to  the  cultivation  of  the  pear  on 
the  Angers  quince  stock,  in  order  to  produce  a  dwarf  and  early  fruiting  habit, 
as  the  small  range  of  the  quince  roots  would  for  a  while,  check  the  naturally 
rapid  growth  of  the  pear,  and  thus  throwing  it  into  the  making  of  fruit  spurs 
would  still  further  check  the  rapid  growth  of  the  tree  and  continue  it  in  a 
•fruitful  condition.  Some  varieties  on  the  quince  did  not  fruit  excessively 
and  finally  developed  into  standard  trees,  and  then  unobservant  men  said  that 
the  trees  had  formed  roots  from  the  pear  stem.  The  fact  is  that  when  we  put 
a  pear  on  a  quince  root,  and  allow  no  further  shoots  of  quin«e  to  grow,  all  the 
subsequent  growth  of  roots  is  pear  and  not  quince,  for  the  leaves  of  a  tree 
form  all  the  material  for  growth,  and  pear-  leaves  form  food  for  pear  growth 
for  limbs  and  roots  alike.  IJence  all  subsequent  growth  of  the  tree  is  pear 
overlaying  and  extending  from  the  old  quince  roots,  and  if  the  growth  of  the 
tree  is  not  retarded  by  excessive  fruit  bearing,  it  will  finally  develop  into  a 
standard  tree,  and  not  a  root  can  be  found  directly  proceeding  from  the 
pear  stem. 

This  fact  in  vegetable  physiology  has  been  strangely  overlooked  by  all 

(320) 


The  Pear— 321 

writers  on  fruit  culture.  Any  nurseryman  of  experience  knows  that  while 
he  may  graft  a  large  block  of  various  kinds  of  apples  on  the  same  lot  of  seed- 
ling crabs,  each  variety  will  form  from  the  piece  of  crab  root  its  own  peculiar 
root  system.  Some  of  the  trees  will  be  easy  to  dig  while  others  will  form  a 
root  system  which  makes  them  harder  to  lift.  What  has  made  this  difference  ? 
Not  the  stock,  for  the  stocks  are  all  the  same,  but  the  top  which  was  grafted 
on  it  has  made  the  root  system  peculiar  to  the  variety.  No  matter  what  the 
stock  used  in  working  a  tree,  the  subsequent  growth  will  be  that  of  the  top, 
whatever  that  may  be;  for  all  elaboration  of  material  for  growth  is  done  by 
the  leaves,  and  partakes  of  the  nature  of  the  plant  from  which  the  leaves  come. 
The  quince  stock,  with  roots  feeding  in  a  more  limited  space  ihan  the  pear 
roots,  will  for  a  time  check  the  rapid  growth  of  the  pear  and  throw  it  into 
fruiting  earlier. 

But  of  late  years  so  many  varieties  of  pears  have  been  introduced  which 
bear  at  a  comparatively  early  age  on  the  pear  stock,  that  less  attention  is  now 
paid  to  dwarf  trees  on  the  quince.  The  introduction  of  hybrids  with  the 
Chinese  sand  pear  has  given  an  impetus  to  pear  culture  in  the  South,  where 
the  old  varieties  are  seldom  a  success ;  and  while  the  Kieff ei*  and  Leconte  are 
not  of  the  highest  excellence,  they  flourish  and  give  large  crops  in  sections 
of  the  country  where  no  other  pears  can  be  grown,  and  form  the  starting 
point  for  improved  varieties  adapted  to  Southern  conditions.  Only  a  few 
days  ago  we,  as  Judge,  examined  a  seedling  pear  from  the  Kieffer  which 
marks  a  real  advance.  It  is  supposed  that  the  Kieffer  is  a  seedling  from  the 
Bartlett  crossed  with  the  Chinese  sand  pear,  and  this  seedling  seems  to  give 
further  evidence  that  this  is  true,  for  while  it  has  the  general  shape  and  ap- 
pearance of  the  Kieffer,  it  has  a  brilliant  red  cheek,  and  one  with  his  eyes  shut 
would  pronounce  it  a  Bartlett.  When  seedlings  of  such  excellence  can  be 
produced  from  Kieffer  there  is  a  wide  field  for  the  workers  in  the  South,  in 
improving  the  pear  that  will  succeed  there. 

While  this  book  is  not  intended  to  treat  of  the  fungus  diseases  of  fruits 
and  other  plants,  but  rather  on  their  growth  and  feeding,  we  cannot  refrain 
from  saying  here  a  few  words  in  regard  to  the  disease  which,  so  far,  has  baffled 
fruit  growers  in  preventing  it.  This  is  the  fire  blight  of  the  pear,  which 
also  at  times  attacks  apples  and  quinces,  but  hardly  to  the  same  extent  that  it 
does  the  pear.  All  sorts  of  odd  notions  have  prevailed  among  intelligent 
growers  as  to  the  cause  of  pear  blight,  and  some  still  have  a  notion  that  it  is 
caused  by  frozen  sap  in  winter.  But  the  investigations  of  scientists  have 
fully  demonstrated  that  the  blight  is  caused  by  one  of  those  microscopic  forms 
of  plant  life  known  as  bacteria,  which  gets  into  the  shoot  in  the  early  spring, 
probably  by  means  of  the  bees  which  visit  the  blossoms.    As  these  grow  down- 


322 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

wards,  destroying  the  yoiing  growing  tissues  between  the  bark  and  wood,  there 
is  no  way  to  get  any  fungicde  material  to  them.  Though  the  blight  begins  its 
growth  early  in  the  season,  its  presence  is  only  known  to  the  ordinary  observer 
by  the  sudden  wilting  and  blackening  of  the  foliage  on  the  affected  limb.  The 
only  way  to  check  it  is  to  cut  the  affected  limb  off  well  into  the  sound  wood, 
and  to  keep  the  knife  used  constantly  sterilized  by  dipping  it  into  a  solution 
of  carbolic  acid,  to  prevent  transferring  live  bacteria  to  sound  wood.  Then 
bum  all  the  cut-off  wood  at  once,  and  keep  on  planting  more  pear  trees. 
Some  varieties  are  less  liable  to  the  blight  than  others,  but  all  are  to  some 
extent,  subject  to  it,  and  if  anyone  tells  you  that  a  certain  variety  is  blight 
proof  you  can  be  sure  he  does  not  know  what  he  is  talking  about. 

Since  writing  the  foregoing  I  have  visited  one  of  the  famous  Pippin  or- 
chards in  the  mountains  of  Albemarle  County,  Virginia.  The  owner  wished 
me  to  give  him  soine  advice  in*  regard  to  the  twig  blight,  which  was  very  trou- 
blesome. I  spent  some  hours  in  the  study  of  a  large  number  of  trees,  and 
what  struck  me  most  was  the  fact  that  there  was  no  signs  of  blight  on  the 
trees  which  were  destitute  of  fruit,  but  on  those  carrying  a  crop  there  was 
uniformly  blighted  twigs.  This  fact  seems  to  confirm  the  experiments  made 
at  one  of  our  Stations,  showing  that  the  point  of  infection  with  the  blight 
bacteria  is  the  blossoms,  and  when  these  fill  without  setting  fruit  there  was 
no  infection.  The  important  point  in  preventing  fire  blight  in  pears  and 
apples  is  to  watch  its  first  start  in  spring  and  cut  it  out  before  the  whole  limb 
is  affected,  for  there  is  no  infection  later  in  the  season. 

One  thing  that  we  have  learned  by  experience,  and  that  is  that  pear  trees 
growing  in  sod  are  far  less  affected  by  blight  than  (hose  cultivated  and  heavily 
manured.  The  rank  growth  induced  by  heavy  manuring  is  peculiarly  the 
prey  of  the  blight.  We  once  had  two  plantations  of  pears  in  a  similar  soil, 
and  only  separated  by  an  evergreen  hedge.  One  lot  were  in  a  piece  of  land 
which  was  used  as  a  vegetable  garden  and  annually  manured  and  well  culti- 
vated. These  blighted  continually,  with  the  sole  exception  of  a  tree  of  the 
Buerre  D'Anjou,  which  had  such  a  luxuriant  growth  and  spreading  habit  that 
nothing  would  grow  near  it,  and  the  land  there  was  only  cultivated  to  the 
extent  of  the  wide  spreading  limbs.  Over  the  other  side  of  the  hedge  was  an- 
other plantation  of  pears  which  were  set  on  a  lawn  and  had  never  been  culti- 
vated from  the  start.  The  lawn  was  constantly  mown  and  kept  in  perfect 
order,  and  all  the  cut  grass  allowed  to  remain  where  it  fell.  It  was  also  an- 
nually top  dressed  with  bone  and  potash.  We  never  saw  a  blighted  limb 
on  these  trees  in  the  six  years  we  had  them  in  charge,  and  while  they  did  not 
make  as  heavy  growth  as  the  trees  in  the  cultivated  land,  they  bore  annual 
crops  of  fine  fruit. 


The  Pear— 323 

Hence,  with  the  pear  as  with  the  apple,  we  would  cultivate  the  trees  in 
grass  as  soon  as  they  have  attained  to  a  bearing  size.  No  one  ever  has  trees 
to  blight,  so  far  as  we  have  observed,  till  they  get  to  blooming,  and  this  is  ad- 
ditional evidence  that  the  bacteria  gain  entrance  through  the  blossoms. 

The  pruning  of  the  pear  tree  from  the  start  must  be  done  in  accordance 
with  the  particular  habit  of  the  tree,  for  pear  trees  vary  greatly  in  their  habit 
of  growth.  Seckel  needs  hardly  any  pruning  to  keep  it  in  perfectly  round 
and  symmetrical  growth,  except  to  prevent  too  dense  a  head.  Sheldon  tends 
to  grow  up  into  a  Lombardy  poplar  form  and  needs  shortening  back  to  buds 
on  the  outside  of  the  shoots,  to  induce  a  more  spreading  habit.  Some  of  the 
books  are  fond  of  showing  pears  trained  in  a  pyramidal  form,  but  we  have  al- 
ways found  that  for  our  climate  the  round  and  open  headed  form  is  the  best 
for  all  our  fruit  trees.  Branched  low  to  the  ground  and  trained  into  this 
form  they  are  better  for  our  purposes  than  pyramids  which  need  the  constant 
care  of  an  expert.  With  trees  like  Kieffer  and  Leconte,  which  are  inclined  to 
make  long  shoots,  it  is  important  to  practice  summer  pinching  to  induce  the 
formation  of  a  compact  head.  We  have  seen  many  Kieffer  trees  which  have 
been  allowed  to  take  their  natural  habit,  and  which  soon  load  the  long  shoots 
with  fruit  and  break  with  the  weight.  If  these  long  shoots  had  been  checked 
by  pinching  the  terminal  buds  when  a  foot  or  two  long,  they  would  have 
branched  and  become  more  compact.  Summer  pinching  is  often  of  greater 
value  than  winter  pruning  with  such  rapid  growers  as  the  Kieffer  and  Vicar. 
With  feeble  and  crooked  growers  like  the  Bartlett,  hard  and  close  pruning 
should  be  the  rule  while  young,  and  no  summer  pinching  should  be  done,  for 
the  Bartlett  needs  encouragement  to  grow  rather  than  checking.  Winter 
cutting  increases  growth  and  summer  pinching  checks  it.  Bear  this  in  mind 
in  all  your  pruning. 

FEEDING  THE  PEAR. 

What  we  have  said  in  regard  to  the  feeding  of  the  apple  orchard  will  ap- 
ply with  equal  force  to  the  manuring  of  the  pear.  Avoid  too  much  nitrog- 
enous manure,  and  too  rank  a  growth  if  you  want  to  avoid  the  blight;  but 
after  the  trees  have  come  to  bearing  age  put  them  in  grass  and  keep  the  grass 
as  you  would  a  fairly  good  lawn.  An  annual  topdressing  of  raw  bone  meal 
and  muriate  of  potash,  in  proportion  of  five  of  the  first  to  one  of  the  latter, 
will  keep  pears  in  sod  in  a  sufficiently  thrifty  condition,  and  they  will  be  far 
less  liable  to  blight  than  if  cultivated.  Even  in  the  young  and  formative 
stage  of  the  trees  of  apples  and  pears,  the  cultivation  should  not  be  kept  up 
later  than  July,  so  as  to  give  the  trees  time  to  ripen  the  wood  growth  of  the 


324 — Crop  GtROWing  and  Crop  Feeding 

season,  and  to  be  in  a  better  condition  to  pass  through  the  winter.  Bemcmber 
too,  what  we  have  said  in  regard  to  cultivation,  that  if  the  land  is  cultivated 
to  the  outer  edge  of  the  limbs  it  is  sufficient,  since  the  feeding  roots  are  out 
beyond  the  limbs  and  not  at  the  base  of  the  stem. 

The  New  Jersey  Station  suggests  the  following  in  regard  to  feeding  the 
pear:  "Two  good  mixtures  of  fertilizers  to  apply  are,  first,  equal  parts  of 
ground  bone,  muriate  of  potash  and  acid  phosphate ;  second,  one  and  on-half 
parts  of  ground  bone  and  one  part  of  muriate  of  potash ;  500  pounds  per  acre 
is  usually  applied.  Where  nitrogen  is  needed,  nitrate  of  soda  is  one  of  the 
best  forms,  but  it  may  be  omitted  when  crimson  clover  is  grown.'' 


CHAPTEE  XLVI. 

PEACHES,  PLUMS  AND  CHERRIES. 

The  so-called  "stone"  fruits  all  require  nearly  the  same  treatment  The 
peach,  being  a  short  lived  tree,  needs  constant  and  regular  cultivation  annu- 
ally during  the  whole  term  of  its  existence.  But,  as  in  the  case  with  young 
apple  trees  this  cultivation  should  not  be  continued  too  late  in  the  season, 
and  some  cover  crop  should  be  sown  to  protect  the  soil  during  the  winter 
and  to  be  turned  under  in  the  spring  for  the  benefit  of  the  trees.  In  the 
peach  growing  region  of  Delaware  and  Eastern  Maryland  it  has  become  a 
common  practice  to  sow  the  orchard  in  crimson  clover  in  July,  at  the  close 
of  cultivation,  and  to  plow  it  all  under  in  the  spring. 

PLANTING  A  PEACH  ORCHARD. 

Peach  trees  should  always  be  but  one  year  old  from  the  bud  when  set. 
In  the  South  the  planting  can  be  best  done  in  the  fall,  at  any  time  after  the 
leaves  fall  up  to  Christmas,  but  in  cold  latitudes  the  planting  should  be 
deferred  till  spring.  We  always  prune  the  roots  of  a  peach  tree  rather  closely, 
leaving  only  the  stout  roots  five  or  six  inches  long,  as  the  small  fibres  will 
all  be  dry  and  worthless  in  any  event  and  the  young  roots  put  out  more  rap- 
idly from  a  clean  cut  surface.  We  are  not  yet  ready  to  adopt  the  plan  recom- 
mended by  Mr.  Stringfellow,  of  Texas,  to  cut  off  the  roots  to  a  mere  stub 
and  set  the  trees  in  holes  made  with  a  crowbar,  in  sod  land,  though  trees  thus 
treated  will  live  and  grow.  We  prefer  to  dig  a  moderate  sized  hole,  no  deeper 
than  the  plowing  has  been,  and  then  to  ram  the  soil  tightly  to  the  pruned 
roots.  After  planting,  we  trim  off  all  side  shoots  closely,  and  then  head  back 
the  main  stem  to  about  twenty  inches  from  the  ground.  In  the  Spring,  when 
growth  begins,  we  select  the  best  situated  buds,  three  or  four,  near  the  top, 
to  form  the  head,  and  rub  off  all  others.  During  the  summer  we  watch  the 
young  shoots  and  if  one  limb  is  inclined  to  grow  too  fast  for  its  fellows,  and 
thus  form  a  one-sided  head,  we  pinch  its  tip  and  check  it. 

(826) 


326 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

The  second  spring  the  pruning  needed  will  be  to  shorten  back  the  young 
growth  of  the  previous  year  nearly  one-half,  and  to  thin  out  the  shoots  that 
may  interfere  with  each  other  in  the  centre  of  the  tree.  The  peach  bears  its 
fruit  on  the  wood  of  the  previous  year,  and  the  tendency  of  growth  is  toward 
the  extremity  of  the  branches,  and  finally  to  leave  the  centre  of  the  tree  des- 
titute of  young  wood.  The  annual  pruning,  then,  should  be  directed  towards 
the  maintenance  of  fruit  wood  well  distributed  throughout  the  head  of  the 
tree,  so  that  the  load  of  fruit  will  be  carried  without  overloading  the  extremi- 
ties and  causing  the  limbs  to  break. 

FEEDING  THE  PEACH. 

Heavy  applications  of  nitrogenous  fertilizers  are  to  be  avoided  in  peach 
culture,  as  encouraging  too  rank  and  sappy  a  growth  and  conducing  rather 
to  wood  than  fruitfulness.  If  the  orchard  is  sown  annually  in  crimson  clover 
or  some  other  legume  growing  during  the  winter,  it  will  get  all  the  nitrogen 
needed  without  artificial  application  of  phosphoric  acid  and  potash,  and  es- 
pecially potash.  Frequently  an  unhealthy  and  yellowish  condition  of  the  tree 
has  been  cured  by  the  application  of  potash,  and  this  fact  has  caused  some 
to  believe  that  the  disease  known  as  "yellows"  can  be  cured  by  potassic  appli- 
cations, which  is  hardly  possible.  The  yellows  is  caused  by  a  fungus,  some 
think,  on  the  roots  of  the  tree ;  a  species  of  the  mushroom  family.  If  this  is 
true,  it  would  seem  that  the  best  way  to  fight  the  yellows  is  with  fungicides 
applied  to  the  soil.  The  application  of  phosphoric  acid  and  potassic  fertil- 
izers in  liberal  amount  will  greatly  aid  the  growth  of  the  clover,  and  the  in- 
creased growth  will  enable  the  plant  to  do  more  nitrogen  catching,  so  that  in 
n  few  years  it  may  be  found  best  to  cut  the  clover  for  hay  rather  than  to  con- 
tinue the  accumulation  of  humus  material  in  the  soil.  Of  this,  however, 
every  grower  must  judge  for  himself.  After  plowing  under  the  clover,  the 
clean  and  shallow  cultivation  of  the  soil  is  important,  for  no  weed  growth 
should  be  allowed  on  the  land  to  withdraw  moisture  from  the  trees  during 
their  early  summer  growth.  Some  of  the  best  work  with  the  peach  has  been 
done  by  the  Connecticut  Agricultural  Experiment  Station. 

The  report  of  the  Connecticut  Station  for  1895  has  the  following  state- 
ment in  regard  to  the  composition  of  the  peach : 

»  "When  peach  trees  are  set  1 8  feet  apart  each  way,  as  is  the  common  prac- 
tice in  this  State,  there  are  130  trees  to  an  acre.  Experienced  growers  reckon 
three  baskets  to  a  tree,  an  average  yielrl  for  orchards  five  years  planted.  Four 
baskets  per  tree  is  a  maximum  crop.  From  the  above  data  are  calculated 
the  quantities  of  nitrogen  and  mineral  matter  removed  from  an  acre  of  130 
trees  by  the  average  crop  of  three  baskets  of  peaches  per  tree,  viz. : 


Peaches,  Plums  and  Cherries — 327 
nitrogen  and  ash  ingredients  in  a  peach  crop  of  390  baskets  per  acre. 

"Nitrogen,  19.7  pounds;  potash,  21.9  pounds;  soda,  1.2  pounds;  lime, 
1.0  pounds;  magnesia,  1.0  pounds;  oxide  of  iron,  0.4  pound;  phosphoric  acid 
4.2  pounds;  sulph.  acid,  1.0  pounds;  chlorine,  0.4  pound. 

"Contrary  to  the  commonly  received  idea,  the  pulp  of  the  fruit  contains 
the  greater  part  of  both  the  nitrogen  and  mineral  matters.  Only  about  one- 
fourth  of  the  nitrogen  and  one-tenth  of  the  ash  elements  are  contained  in  the 
stones.  While  these  quantities  of  nitrogen  and  mineral  matters  are  smaller 
than  those  removed  by  many  other  garden  or  field  crops,  it  does  not  follow  that 
peach  trees  need  less  care  for  their  proper  manuring.  The  quantities  of  plant 
food  required  for  the  yearly  growth  of  wood  and  leaves  must  be  considerable. 
Young  twigs  contain  a  larger  proportion  of  nitrogen,  phosphoric  acid  and 
potash  than  old  wood.  But  we  have  no  exact  data  at  hand  from  which  to 
compute  the  yearly  demand  of  the  growing  peach  tree  on  the  plant  food  in 
the  soil.  Field  experiments  demonstrate  that  liberal  fertilization  is  neces- 
sary to  secure  the  most  profitable  returns  from  peach  orchards." 

The  figures  given  simply  show  what  is  carried  off  from  the  acre  of  land 
by  the  crop  of  peaches,  and  indicate  that  an  annual  return  of  20  pounds  of 
nitrogen,  22  of  potash  and  5  of  phosphoric  acid  will  restore  to  the  land  what 
the  average  peach  crop  requires,  and  that  27  pounds  of  nitrogen,  30  of  potash 
and  7  of  phosphoric  acid  will  make  good  the  deficit  caused  by  a  maximum 
crop,  provided  there  are  no  other  sources  of  loss  besides  the  export 
of  fruit.  But  it  is  one  thing  to  return  to  the  soil  what  the  crop  has 
removed  and,  to  some  extent,  another  thing  to  maintain  the  fertility  of  the 
soil  so  far  as  relates  to  the  suitable  supply  of  plant  food. 

The  active  feeders  of  the  tree  in  the  soil  are  the  young  rootlets  and  root 
hairs  that  are  put  forth  the  current  year.  The  roots  of  five  or  two  years  ago 
are  probably  themselves  totally  incapable  of  feeding  the  plant.  Even  last 
year's  roots  are  of  little  use  except  as  they  are  necessary  bases  of  the  new 
rootlets  that  develop  this  year.  The  young  roots  of  each  successive  year  of 
growth  thus  occupy  different  positions  in  the  soil,  and  since  most  of  the  plant 
food  in  the  soil  is  incapable  of  movement,  much  of  it,  at  any  time,  is  out  of 
the  reach  of  the  rootlets,  and  to  be  fertile  the  acre  of  soil  must  contain  many 
pounds  of  plant  food  in  order  to  insure  to  the  crop  the  few  pounds  which 
it  requires. 

"If  the  soil  is  very  rich  to  begin  with,  the  trees  may  produce  well  for  years 
without  fertilizers,  but  the  New  England  hills  that  furnish  the  best  orchard 
sites,  are,  as  a  rule,  not  fertile,  and  must  be  well  enriched  to  make  them  profit- 
able.    It  is  now  no  doubt  well  known  to  orchardists  that  soils  have  the  power 


328 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

of  changing  the  solubility  and  availability  of  the  plant  food  which 
may  be  put  upon  them  in  fertilizers.  It  is  well  proved  that 
phosphoric  acid  applied  in  water-soluble  form,  becomes,  in  many 
soils  within  a  few  days  or  weeks,  quite,  insoluble  in  water,  and 
for  a  considerable  time  gradually  diminishes  in  availability.  Cer- 
tain soils  contain  enough  phosphoric  acid  to  serve  many  large  crops  if  it 
Avere  freely  accessible  to  their  roots,  but  that  this  phosphoric  acid  is  not  imme- 
diately available  is  demonstrated  by  the  fact  that  moderate  dressings  of  plain 
superphosphate  strikingly  increase  the  yield.  What  has  just  been  stated 
of  phosphoric  acid  is  equally  true  of  potash.  As  to  nitrogen,  we  know  much 
but  not  nearly  enough  of  its  incomings  and  outgoings.  We  know  that  the 
soils  of  forests,  meadows  and  moist  pastures  gain  in  nitrogen,  while  dry, 
naked  or  tilled  ground  loses  nitrogen  from  year  to  year.  We  know  that 
clovers  and  legumes  generally  rapidly  enrich  or  may  enrich  the  soil  they  grow 
upon,  as  respects  nitrogen,  while  the  culture  of  cereals,  root  and  fibre  crops, 
and  garden  truck,  diminishes  and  exhausts  the  soil  nitrogen.  As  a  rule 
in  case  of  soils  that  have  a  fair  proportion  of  fine  clayey  matters,  all  the  phos- 
phoric acid  and  potash  that  may  be  needed  to  aid  any  crop,  if  once  applied 
cannot  escape  from  the  soil  and  will  be  retained  near  the  surface,  will  not 
in  any  event  descend  much  below  or  spread  from  where  it  has  beeli  placed. 
With  nitrogen  it  is  very  different  and  loss  of  this  element  may  occur  in  three 
ways:  First,  by  leaching  out  in  the  drainage  water  as  nitrates;  second,  by 
escaping  into  the  air  as  nitrogen  gas,  and,  third,  by  conversion  into  compara- 
tively inert  forms,  such  as  exist  in  leaf  mold,  swamp  muck  and  peat,  or  in  the 
cell  tissues  of  fungi  and  shells  of  insects.  For  this  reason,  soluble  and  active 
and  therefore  costly^  fertilizers  are  best  applied  in  small  doses,  at  or  near  the 
surface  of  the  ground  and  at  short  intervals ;  while  cheap,  insoluble  and 
slowly-acting  manures  may  be  used  in  large  applications  and  deeply  mixed  in 
order  to  establish  a  more  permanent  state  of  fertility.  The  amount  of  any 
needed  fertilizer  element  to  be  supplied  annually,  must  be  learned  by  experi- 
ence and  experiment,  since  soils  vary  greatly  in  their  composition  and  quali- 
ties ;  and  the  supply  must  commonly  be  several  or  many  times  larger  than  the 
amount  annually  taken  off  in  the  crop.  One  fertilizer  element  that  is  scarcely 
noticeable  in  the  export  of  the  peach  crop,  is  nevertheless  important  to  its 
production.  The  chief  ingredient  of  the  ash  of  the  wood,  bark  and  leaves 
of  all  trees  is  generally  lime.  The  wood  of  healthy  peach  twigs  of  one  year's 
growth  contained  1.87  per  cent,  of  ash,  of  which  54.2  per  cent,  was  lime,  9.5 
per  cent,  magnesia,  16.3  per  cent  potash,  4.3  per  cent,  phosphoric  acid  and  6.9 
per  cent,  sulphuric  acid.  The  mature  leaves  of  oak  and  chestnut  trees  con- 
tain about  30  per  cent,  of  water,  3  to  4  per  cent,  of  ash,  and  of  the  latter  30 


Peaches,  Plums  and  Cherries — 329 

to  40  per  cent,  is  lime.  Where  the  water  of  wells  or  springs  coming  from  the 
soil,  is  soft  or  but  slightly  hard,  the  orchard  needs  lime  to  be  supplied.  This 
substance  dissolves  rather  freely  in  the  drainage  water  and  is,  therefore,  sub- 
ject to  constant  waste.  Wood  ashes  and  lime  should  be  broadcasted  at  the 
rate  of  500  pounds  per  acre  annually,  and  this  dressing  will  be  of  the  greatest 
benefit  to  the  crimson  clover  now  so  commonly  used  in  the  orchards."  Our 
own  opinion  is  that  no  peach  or  other  orchard  would  need  so  frequent  an  ap- 
plication of  lime,  and  that  the  above  amount  in  connection  with  grass  in  the 
apple  orchards  and  the  annual  clover  in  the  peach  orchard  during  the  latter 
part  of  the  season,  would  be  ample  for  all  needs  .if  applied  once  in  three  years. 
These  remarks  in  regard  to  the  fertilization  of  the  peach  are  equally  applica- 
ble to  the  fertilzation  of  orchard  trees  of  any  kind,  and  the  lime  is  even  more 
important  in  the  apple  and  pear  orchard  than  in  the  peach  orchard. 

THE  PLUM. 

While  the  statement  that  plums  require  a  heavier  soil  than  peaches  is 
true,  especially  of  the  European  (or  Domestica)  sorts,  the  Japanese  and 
American  varieties  will  thrive  on  a  great  variety  of  soils,  and  we  have  seen 
them  bearing  heavy  crops  on  a  deep  sand.  Many  nurserymen  bud  their  plums 
entirely  on  peach  seedlings,  but  this  has  one  difficulty.  While  the  peach 
stock  makes  a  vigorous  tree  it  is  just  as  liable  to  the  peach  tree  borer  at  the 
crown  of  the  root  as  the  peach ;  hence  many  have  begun  to  use  the  Marianna 
plum  as  a  stock  and  find  that  it  is  better  than  the  peach,  as  it  thrives  on  a 
greater  variety  of  soils  and  resists  the  borer  better,  while  it  has  root  develop- 
ment enough  to  promote  a  vigorous  growth.  The  budding  is  done  in  August, 
at  the  same  time  the  general  budding  of  the  peach  is  done,  and  the  buds  re- 
main dormant  till  the  following  spring.  Some  nurserymen  insert  buds  of  the 
plum  and  peach  in  June  and  get  a  small  growth  the  same  season,  but  the 
practice  is  not  to  be  recommended  as  a  general  rule,  though  careful  growers 
can  make  just  as  good  trees  from  the  little  June-budded  stocks  as  any,  and  for 
our  own  planting  we  rather  prefer  them;  but  the  average  planter  had  better 
take  the  yearling  trees.  In  planting,  we  prune  the  roots  to  four  to  eight 
inches  long.  The  finer  rootlets  will  have  all  dried  and  become  useless  and 
new  roots  are  produced  on  the  ends  of  the  clean  cut  roots  sooner  than  from 
the  dried  up  fibres.  The  peach  and  all  other  fruit  trees  we  treat  in  the  same 
way.  Of  late  years  there  has  been  a  great  deal  of  controversy  over  a  method  of 
planting  advocated  by  a  grower  in  Texas.  He  prunes  off  all  the  roots  of  the 
tree  and  leaves  only  a  stub  3  or  4  inches  long.  He  then  makes  a  hole  with 
a  crowbar  in  the  sod,  sticks  the  tree  in  and  rams  the  earth  to  it.     He  claims 


330 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

that  trees  treated  in  this  way  will  make  better  trees  and  better  roots  than  if 
planted  in  a  big  hole  with  all  the  roots.  Climate  has  a  good  deal  to  do  with 
these  things,  and  experiments  in  a  more  northern  latitude  have  not  been  as 
favorable  as  those  made  in  the  South,  where  trees  planted  in  this  way  certain- 
ly do  grow  and  thrive  remarkably.  The  planting  should  be  done  in  the  South 
as  soon  as  the  leaves  are  off  in  the  fall  and  up  to  Christmas,  and  in  the  North 
probably  April  would  be  the  better  time.  For  most  of  the  Japan  plums  a  dis- 
tance of  16x20  feet  will  be  about  the  proper  space  for  the  planting.  As  with 
the  peach,  the  plums  should,  during  the  early  stages  of  their  growth  at  least, 
]'eceive  careful  culture  during  the  early  part  of  the  summer,  and  after  July 
should  have  a  crop  of  crimson  clover  sown  among  them.  After  the  trees 
have  gotten  well  to  fruiting,  they  can  safely  be  put  into  grass 
and  used  as  a  chicken  yard.  The  pruning  is  about  the  same 
we  give  the  peach,  and  the  manuring  we  have  already  men- 
tioned. If  the  clover  or  other  nitrogen  collecting  legume  is  grown 
among  the  trees,  with  a  good  application  of  phosphoric  acid  and 
potash,  there  will  be  no  need  for  any  nitrogenous  manures,  but  the  application 
of  the  phosphoric  and  potassic  fertilizers  should  be  faithfully  kept  up  annual- 
ly if  the  production  of  maximum  crops  is  desired.  All  the  Japan  plums  are 
inclined  to  overbear,  and  there  is  no  fruit  grown  that  can  be  so  improved  by 
systematic  thinning  of  the  young  fruit.  Thinning  not  only  improves  the  size 
and  quality  of  the  fruit  and  takes  off  the  strain  from  the  vitality  of  the  tree, 
but  it  also  lessens  the  tendency  to  rot  where  the  fruit  grows  touching  each 
other.  But  pick  the  fruit  by  hand  and  do  not  merely  shake  the  trees  or  thresh 
off  the  fruit  with  a  pole  and  thereby  bruise  many  that  are  left.  With  the 
domestica  (or  European)  sorts  it  is  essential  that  daily  Jarring  of  the  trees 
be  practiced  so  as  to  catch  the  curculio  which  lays  eggs  in  the  fruit  and  makes 
them  wormy.  If  the  chickens,  as  I  have  said,  are  allowed  access  to  the  trees 
and  the  jarring  is  done  daily,  they  will  gather  up  the  bitten  fruit  and  insects, 
and  keep  the  trees  comparatively  free.  A  large  machine  like  an  inverted 
umbrella  is  used  in  large  orchards  for  the  collecting  of  the  insects.  It  is 
made  on  a  stout  frame  with  cotton  cloth. and  a  slit  on  one  side  so  that  it  can 
be  slipped  around  the  body  of  the  tree.  If  the  machine  has  an  opening  at 
the  bottom  under  which  a  pan  of  kerosene  is  attached,  the  insects  and  bitten 
fruit  roll  into  this  and  are  at  once  destroyed. 

Plums  prefer  rather  a  heavier  soil  than  the  peach,  and  thrive  well  in  sod. 
We  have  here  an  old  plum  tree,  growing  in  a  hollow  in  the  woods,  where  it 
has  never  received  any  cultivation  whatever.  It  stands  in  the  shade  of  large 
oaks  and  other  trees  of  the  original  forest,  and  3^et,  year  after  year  it  bears 
crops  of  the  finest  plums.     How  old  it  is  we  do  not  know  for  it  was  there  many 


Peaches,  Plums  and  Cherries — 331 

years  before  we  came  into  possession.  It  would  hardly  be  classed  as  a  remark- 
ably thrifty  tree,  and  yet  it  is  healthy,  free  from  black  knot,  and  does  not 
seem  to  be  troubled  by  the  curculio.  Our  chickens  have  the  free  range  of  the 
woods  where  it  grows,  and  this  fact  may,  to  some  extent,  account  for  its  free- 
dom from  insects.  In  fact,  from  our  experience  in  the  past,  we  believe  that 
a  chicken  yard  is  about  the  best  place  for  plum  trees.  All  the  old  European 
varieties  are  peculiarly  liable  to  the  attacks  of  the  curculio,  and  a  regular 
jarring  of  the  trees  in  a  poultry  yard  will  keep  them  down  as  effectually  as  any 
plan  we  have  ever  tried.  Then,  too,  the  droppings  of  the  poultry  will  give 
much  plant  food  to  the  trees.  Plums  of  the  more  recently  introduced  Japan- 
ese varieties  are  inclined  to  grow  long,  rank  shoots  and  to  get  overloaded. 
The  pruning  should  be  similar  to  that  of  the  peach  to  preserve  the  trees  in 
a  round  headed  shape,  and  to  keep  the  fruit  spurs  well  distributed  over  the 
tree.  One  fact  in  regard  to  plums,  and  especially  the  native  and  Japanese 
sorts  is  the  repugnance  they  have  in  many  varieties  to  self  impregnation. 
Hence  it  is  important  that  the  varieties  should  be  well  mixed  together  in  the 
orchard.  A  farmer  who  had  an  orchard  of  the  Wild  Goose  plum  asked  me 
one  day  why  it  was  that  only  one  corner  of  the  orchard  bore  heavy  crops.  I 
asked  him  if  there  were  any  other  plum  trees  near  that  corner.  He  said  that 
there  was  a  hedge  row  of  the  native  Chicasa  plums  there.  The  reason  was 
then  quite  apparent,  for  the  wild  plums  were  helping  to  set  the  fruit.  While 
plums  do  well  in  a  sod  after  they  have  attained  a  bearing  size,  we  would,  as 
in  the  ease  of  apples  and  pears,  grow  the  sod  solely  for  the  benefit  of  the  trees 
and  would  not  cut  hay  from  it,  but  simply  keep  it  mown  and  let  the  grass 
decay  where  it  falls.  In  addition  to  this  an  annual  application  of  300  to 
400  pounds  per  acre  of  a  mixture  of  acid  phosphate  and  muriate  of  potash, 
in  proportion  of  five  parts  of  the  phosphate  to  one  of  the  potash,  will  keep  up 
the  fertility  of  the  soil  and  the  health  and  productiveness  of  the  trees. 

CHERRIES. 

Cherries,  like  plums,  will  thrive  well  in  uncultivated  soil,  as  is  well  at- 
tested by  the  immense  trees  along  the  fence  rows  in  the  Middle  Atlantic 
States.  But  the  Morello  class  of  pie  cherries  thrives  best  under  the  same  treat- 
ment as  the  peach,  and  should  be  well  cultivated  if  fine  crops  are  expected. 
The  sour  cherries  are  the  only  ones  that  can  be  grown  with  success  in  the 
South  Atlantic  coast  region,  thougli  the  finer  sorts  thrive  in  all  the  mountain 
country  of  the  Southern  Alleghanies.  The  same  treatment  as  to  manuring 
that  has  been  advised  for  the  peach  will  suit  the  cherry  as  well.  In  the  South, 
the  trees  of  the  larger  cherries  should  always  be  upon  the  Mahaleb  stock,  and 


332 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

headed  very  low  to  shield  the  trunks  from  the  sun.  In  fact,  this  low  heading 
of  fruit*  trees,  while  the  best  anywhere,  is  absolutely  essential  in  the  South, 
if  we  are  to  prevent  sun  scalding  on  the  southwest  sides  of  the  trees. 

Cherry  trees  in  more  northern  sections  are  budded  for  the  sweet  varie- 
ties on  the  Mazzard  stock,  as  this  makes  a  larger  tree  than  the  Mahaleb ;  there 
only  the  sour  cherries  are  worked  on  the  Mahaleb  stock.  The  trees  are  usu- 
ally set  at  two  years  old,  but  we  prefer  to  set  one  year  trees,  as  we  can  then 
better  start  the  formation  of  the  low  head  the  cherry  should  always  have. 
With  the  sour  cherries  it  is  essential  that  the  orchard  should  have  good  culti- 
vation throughout  its  entire  life,  and  the  same  is  true  for  the  best  success  in 
orchard  culture  of  any  of  the  varieties,  though  there  are  thousands  of  the 
most  magnificent  cherry  trees  along  the  fence  rows  on  the  Delaware  and 
Maryland  Peninsula  which  have  never  received  any  cultivation  at  all  further 
than  that  given  the  fields  on  which  they  border ;  and  yet  the  trees  are  vigorous 
and  healthy  and  produce  enormous  crops.  The  sweet  cherry  tree  is  a  gross 
feeder  and  will  find  food  by  means  of  its  wide-spreading  roots  in  .a  soil  where 
the  dwarfer,  sour  cherries  would  not  thrive,  and  if  the  soil  for  these  is  made 
too  rich  they  may  run  merely  into  an  annual  wood  growth  and  bear  little  fruit. 
The  sowing  of  a  crimson  clover  crop  in  the  cherry  orchard  is  just  as  import- 
ant and  useful  as  in  the  peach  orchard,  and  all  the  nitrogenous  matter  the 
trees  need  can  be  supplied  in  this  way.  But,  as  has  been  well  said  in  the  bul- 
letin of  the  Delaware  Station,  the  plowing  under  of  this  clover  in  the  spring 
should  be  done  as  soon  as  the  land  is  in  order  to  plow,  for  early  plowing  and 
subsequent  shallow  cultivation,  is  an  important  matter  for  the  retention 
in  the  soil  of  the  moisture  the  cherry  needs  for  its  best  development.  The 
Delaware  Station  advises  the  application  of  300  to  500  pounds  of  acid  phos- 
phate and  150  to  250  pounds  of  muriate  of  potash  per  acre  to  the  cherry 
orchard.  One  of  the  most  extensive  cherry  growers  in  Western  N^ew  York 
applies  three  pounds  of  muriate  of  potash  and  two  pounds  of  acid  phosphate 
per  tree,  either  in  the  spring  or  when  seeding  to  crimson  clover.  The  regu- 
lar application  of  phosphoric  acid  is  an  important  thing  for  the  proper  ma- 
turity of  the  wood  in  the  fall.  As  with  all  the  stone  fruits  that  bloom  early, 
the  cherry  will  be  safer  in  a  northern  exposure  in  most  parts  of  the  country, 
so  that  the  blossoming  period  may  be  retarded.  The  most  profitable  sour 
cherries  for  market  are  the  Montmorenci  and  the  Early  Richmond.  The 
same  jarring  that  is  practiced  with  the  plum  and  peach  is  useful  in  catching 
the  curculio  on  the  cherry,  and  should  not  be  neglected.  The  best  remedy 
against  sun  scald  and  bursting  of  the  bark  is  to  head  the  trees  close  to  the 
ground  and  get  the  protection  of  the  top  as  soon  as  possible. 


CHAPTER  XLVII. 
THE  GRAPE. 

The  wide  range  of  soils  and  climates  in  the  United  States  in  which  grape 
culture  succeeds  is  an  evidence  of  the  great  adaptability  of  the  vine  for  varied 
conditions.  The  grape  thrives  well  on  soils  of  very  different  character,  and  is 
at  home  anywhere  in  a  soil  abounding  in  the  plant  foods  it  needs;  provided 
it  has  a  well  drained  location,  for  it  will  not  thrive  with  wet  feet ;  a  compact 
clay  is  about  the  poorest  soil  for  the  grape.  The  Delaware,  which  is  inclined 
to  be  a  feeble  grower  in  such  a  soil,  grows  with  the  utmost  luxuriance  on  a 
shaly  hillside  and  finds  its  most  congenial  home  in  the  sandy  uplands  of  the 
South.  On  these  sandy  lands  we  found  that  there  is  no  plant  grown  which  is 
so  readily  affected  by  the  commercial  fertilizers  as  the  grape.  And  we  have 
also  found  that  a  complete  fertilizer,  in  which  there  is  a  fair  percentage  of 
nitrogen  and  a  large  percentage  of  phosphoric  acid  and  potash,  is  the  best  for 
the  grape.  With  such  a  fertilizer  we  grew  the  Niagara  grape  to  such  a  size 
that  we  were  compelled  to  pack  them  in  the  carrier  baskets  used  for  peaches, 
as  the  smaller  grape  baskets  were  entirely  too  small  for  the  clusters.  Our 
vines  were  planted  in  rows  ten  feet  apart  and  eight  feet  from  each  other  in 
the  row.  We  used  a  modification  of  the  Munson  trellis.  Posts  were  set  in 
the  rows,  and  cross  pieces  two  feet  long  nailed  across  their  tops  four  feet  from 
the  ground.  Wires  were  stretched  along  the  line  of  posts  and  two  others 
along  the  ends  of  the  cross  pieces.  The  arms  were  taken  along  the  central 
wire  and  the  fruit  shoots  hung  over  the  outer  wires  so  as  to  completely  shelter 
the  grapes  beneath.  This  style  of  trellis  is  convenient  for  the  cultivation, 
pruning  and  harvesting  of  the  grapes,  and  there  is  far  less  rot  than  on  an 
unsheltered,  vertical  trellis.  For  a  fertilizer  we  would  advise  the  following, 
to  make  a  ton.  Acid  phosphate,  1,000  pounds ;  cotton  seed  meal,  600  pounds ; 
^nd  muriate  of  potash,  400  pounds.  Of  this  we  would  use  400  to  600  pounds 
per  acre,  annually  on  a  sandy  soil. 

A  ton  of  fresh  grapes  will  remove  from  the  soil  3.3  pounds  of  nitrogen, 
0.2  of  a  pound  of  phosphoric  acid  and  5.2  pounds  of  potash.  In  the  wood- 
growth  the  amount  of  phosphoric  acid  is  greatly  larger  than  in  the  fruit,  and 
the  amount  of  potash  nearly  three  times  as  great.     The  main  requirements, 

(883) 


334 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

then,  evidently  are  phosphoric  acid  and  potash.  As  in  the  case  of  the  orchard 
of  peaches,  the  vineyard  will  be  greatly  better  off  if  the  cultivation  ceases  at 
midsummer,  and  the  spaces  between  the  rows  are  sown  with  a  leguminous 
crop  that  will  remain  during  the  winter.  With  such  a  growth  there  will  soon 
be  no  need  for  any  applications  of  nitrogen  in  the  fertilizer,  which  can  then  be 
reduced  to  the  two  constituents,  acid  phosphate  and  potash. 

The  Southern  species  of  the  Vulpina  (Rotundifolia)  genus,  the  "Scup- 
pernong,"  are  commonly  grown  from  Southeastern  Virginia  southward  along 
the  coast  on  horizontal  arbors,  and  there  is  a  belief  that  they  should  never 
be  pruned;  and  there  are,  in  the  South,  immense  vines  that  cover  acres  with 
the  growth  from  a  single  trunk,  and  bear  profusely.  But  proper  pruning  is 
just  as  good  for  the  Scuppernong  and  other  grapes  of  this  class  as  for  others, 
with  the  difference  that  these  grapes  produce  fruit  from  two-year-old  wood, 
while  the  Labrusca  varieties  grown  in  the  North  bear  on  one-year  wood.  A 
proper  amount  of  strong  canes  must  be  preserved  in  the  Scuppernong  class 
and  the  old  gnarled  wood  cut  out.  This  must  be  done  in  the  fall,  to  avoid 
the  heavy  bleeding  these  vines  are  apt  to  make  when  cut  in  the  spring.  These 
grapes  prefer  a  sandy  soil  and  a  warm  climate,  and  will  not  ripen  north  of 
Southern  Virginia.  In  a  soil  suited  to  them  they  are  not  at  all  exacting  in 
their  requirements  as  to  food,  and  all  over  the  South  Atlantic  slope  can  be  seen 
immense  vines  which  have  never  been  manured  or  pruned.  But  they  will, 
nevertheless,  well  repay  the  application  advised  for  other  grapes.  Grown  on 
the  wide  extended  arbors  it  is  not  practicable  to  grow  the  leguminous  cover 
crops,  and  some  nitrogen  should  always  be  a  part  of  the  fertilizer,  and  no  mix- 
ture is  better  than  the  above. 

PROPAGATION  OF  THE  GRAPE. 

Most  of  the  varieties  of  our  native  grapes  are  easily  increased  from  cut- 
tings of  the  one-year-old  wood,  made  in  the  fall  and  buried  out  of  reach  of 
frost  (in  the  colder  latitudes)  till  spring,  and  then  set  in  nursery  rows.  In  the 
South  they  can  be  set  at  once  where  they  are  to  grow,  and  slightly  protected 
by  a  thin  cover  of  pine  leaves  or  straw  to  prevent  the  soil  from  freezing.  The 
cuttings  should  be  made  with  about  three  eyes  unless  the  wood  is  of  a  very 
short  jointed  variety,  when  four  or  more  eyes  may  be  used.  They  should  be 
set  with  the  top  bud  just  above  the  ground,  and  the  cuttings  should  be  cut 
right  under  the  bud  at  the  lower  end  and  an  inch  above  the  bud  at  the  top. 
They  will  be  fit  to  set  in  the  vineyard  at  the  end  of  one  summer's  growth. 
Some  varieties,  like  the  Delaware  and  Norton's  Virginia,  which  are  slow  to 
root  in  the  ordinary  way,  will  root  well  if  tied  in  bunches  and  buried  in  the 


The  Grape— 335 

fall  upside  down,  and  then  in  the  spring  set  in  the  proper  position.  Why 
this  is  so  I  do  not  attempt  to  explain,  but  the  fact  is  that  refractory  cuttings 
will  root  when  so  treated  that  w  ould  not  root  if  set  at  once  in  the  proper  posi- 
tion. It  is  frequently  desirable  to  change  the  variety  of  grape  in  a  vineyard 
and  then  the  grafting  method  should  be  used.  Having  strong,  old  stocks  we 
cut  them  down  to  the  crown  of  the  roots,  and  late  in  the  fall,  here,  insert  cleft 
grafts  and  then  mound  the  earth  over  the  whole  deep  enough  to  exclude  the 
usual  amount  of  frost.  In  the  North  the  grafting  should  be  deferred  till 
March,  but  should  be  done  before  there  is  any  swelling  of  the  buds,  and  the 
earlier  it  is  done  the  better.  Mr.  A.  S.  Fuller  grafted  grapes  in  the  fall  in 
the  North,  by  covering  the  graft  with  an  inverted  flower  pot  and  burying 
the  whole  in  the  soil,  just  leaving  the  bottom  of  the  pot  uncovered,  and  then 
covered  the  whole  with  straw  to  protect  from  freezing,  and  put  on  top  the 
straw  eight  inches  of  soil.  If  the  grafting  is  done  in  the  spring  the  scions 
should  be  cut  in  the  fall  and  buried  as  the  cuttings  are,  so  as  to  keep  them 
dormant,  for  the  grafting  can  be  done  with  success  after  the  vines  start  if  the 
scions  are  dormant.  Strong  growing  sorts,  like  the  Champion  and  the  Con- 
cord, are  fine  stocks  for  grafting,  and  we  have  seen  canes  of  the  Delaware 
from  a  graft  on  the  Champion  which,  by  fall,  were  20  feet  long,  and  in  good 
condition  to  begin  fruiting  the  following  season.  The  scion  is  cut  in  the  ordi- 
nary wedge  shape,  with  a  bud  on  the  outside  just  above  the  point  to  which  it  is 
inserted  in  the  stock.  There  are  other  methods  used  in  the  grafting  of  the 
grape,  but  the  ordinary  cleft-graft  on  the  crown  of  the  root,  is  more  uniformly 
successful  and  is  as  good  as  any.  We  do  not  use  any  wax  in  grafting  grapes, 
but  always  bury  the  graft  well  in  the  ground  at  the  point  of  union.  A  modi- 
fication in  the  grafting  of  grapes  was  invented  by  Mr.  Allen  Warren,  of  this 
State,  who  is  a  large  grower  of  the  Scuppernong.  While  the  Scuppernong  is 
easily  grown  from  layers  it  is  rather  refractory  from  long  cuttings.  Mr. 
Warren  goes  into  the  woods  and  gets  roots  of  the  Wild  Bullace  grapes  belong- 
ing to  the  same  family  as  the  Scuppernong.  These  he  cuts  into  three-inch 
pieces  and  makes  a  split  across  the  root  about  midway.  He  then  makes  his 
scion  wedge-shape,  as  for  ordinary  cleft  grafting,  sticks  it  through  this  slit 
and  then  sets  the  graft  as  an  ordinary  cutting.  In  the  fall  following  it  will 
be  seen  that  rootlets  have  started  from  the  root  and  also  from  the  projecting 
end  of  the  graft,  a  much  stronger  vine  is  the  result  and  there  is  a  perfect 
union  with  the  scion  where  it  crosses  the  root.  The  same  practice  can  be  fol- 
lowed with  the  Labrusca  varieties  by  taking  roots  of  the  same  species.  Grapes 
are  seldom  as  fine  in  a  rich  garden  as  in  the  vineyard.  This  is  because  of  the 
excess  of  nitrogen  in  the  soil,  and  they  should  have  only  phosphoric  acid  and 
potash  to  balance  this.     It  is  the  result  simply  of  an  unbalanced  food  ration. 


CHAPTER  XL VIII. 
GARDENING  UNDER  GLASS. 

WHAT  CAN  BE  DONE  WITH  A  HOTBED  SASH,  AND  THE  USE  OP  FERTILIZERS  IN 

FRAMES. 

This  book  would  not  be  the  valuable  Vade  Mecum  we  would  like  to  make 
it  if  we  gave  no  attention  to  the  needs  of  that  large  class  of  cultivators  who 
work  under  artificial  conditions,  and  whose  operations  are  upon  a  more  in- 
tensive scale  than  those  of  any  other  class  of  growers.  Winter  forcing  of 
vegetable  crops  under  glass  is  a  business  of  rather  recent  development  in  this 
country.  Not  that  it  has  not  long  been  done  in  the  hothouses  of  the  wealthy, 
where  the  products  cost  their  weight  in  silver,  but  it  is  only  of  recent  years 
that  the  increase  of  wealth  and  population  in  our  large  cities  has  made  it 
possible  and  profitable  to  grow  vegetables  and  fruits  under  artificial  con- 
ditions in  winter.  The  ^reat  development  of  the  trucking  industry  in  the 
South  and  nearby  tropical  sections,  with  modern  facilities  for  transportation, 
incited  the  gardeners  of  the  North  to  greater  efforts  to  meet  this  competi- 
tion. Knowing  that  with  skill  and  capital  garden  products  of  all  sorts  could 
be  produced  in  finer  quality  under  glass  than  in  the  open  ground,  it  only  i  > 
mained  to  secure  a  clientage  which  would  pay  a  price  for  these  products  that 
would  warrant  the  extra  expense  of  producing  them.  And,  as  in  all  business 
where  men  set  themselves  earnestly  to  work  and  there  is  a  fair  amount  of  com- 
petition, methods  are  gradually  developed  for  cheapening  the  production  to 
meet  the  increase  in  competition.  In  the  earlier  days  of  winter  forcing  under 
glass  the  small  amount  of  products  grown  commanded  very  fancy  prices,  and 
these  fancy  prices  stimulated  others  to  engage  in  the  business,  with  the  in- 
evitable result  that  increased  production  of  articles  bought  by  a  limited  class 
of  people,  led  to  a  decrease  in  price  on  the  market.  But  the  American  gar- 
dener is  ever  on  the  alert  to  meet  the  difficulties  of  his  profession,  and  the 
cheapening  of  the  product  simply  set  him  to  work  at  the  task  of  cheapening 
the  production  by  increasing  the  area  of  his  work  and  doing  things  on  a  larger 
scale,  using  facilities  with  which  smaller  cultivators  find  it  difficult  to  com- 
pete. Naturally  the  cultivation  of  vegetables,  fruits  and  flowers  in  the  cold 
months  first  developed  in  the  colder  sections  of  the  country,  near  the  large 

(336) 


Gardening  Under  Glass — 337 

Northern  cities  whore  wealth  havS  accumulated  and  the  customers  for  these 
things  live.  The  competition  around  the  market  gardener  in  the  crops  grown 
in  the  open  ground,  and  the  competition  of  those  in  a  more  sunny  climate 
made  it  necessary  for  the  wide  awake  gardener  to  adopt  some  means  for  get- 
ting the  advantage  of  his  immediate  neighbors  and  competing  on  somewhat 
equal  terms  with  those  south  of  him,  who  were  handicapped  by  long  trans- 
portation charges.  So  today  the  gardener  who  simply  meets  the  local  com- 
petition, is  less  successful  than  the  man  who  by  extra  skill  and  the  use  of 
glass  meets  the  competition  of  those  further  away  in  a  more  sunny  climate, 
and  puts  on  his  local  market,  products  of  superior  excellence  and  in  better 
condition  than  those  frOm  a  distance  grown  under  natural  conditions  and  with 
less  application  of  skill.  For  instance,  the  writer,  even  in  a  Southern  home- 
market,  every  winter  sells  tomatoes  from  the  forcing  house  in  direct  competi- 
tion with  the  open  ground  product  from  Florida,  and  gets  five  times  the  price 
that  the  Florida  product  brings,  simply  because  of  the  greater  excellence 
and  superior  condition  of  his  product.  For  a  long  time  this  business  of  grow- 
ing products  under  glass  was  confined  to  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  great 
markets  of  the  North.  Only  a  few  years  ago  we  noted  the  fact  that  in  the 
market  reports  one  morning  the  first  cucumbers  from  the  open  ground  in  the 
lower  Gulf  States  were  sold  on  the  Northern  market,  and  the  same  morning 
cucumbers  from  a  hothouse  in  Vermont  were  sold  there,  and  the  product  of 
the  hothouse  in  that  semi-arctic  climate  brought  several  times  the  price  of 
the  Southern  article.  Since  these  products  in  such  a  climate  must  have  been 
produced  at  a  great  cost,  and  being  at  a  considerable  distance  from  the  New 
York  market  where  they  were  sold,  the  thought  occurred  to  me  that  there  was 
the  opportunity  of  the  grower  in  the  Upper  South  no  further  from  the  market, 
and  with  a  milder  and  more  sunny  climate,  which  would  allow  of  cheaper 
houses,  less  coal  and  with  the  abounding  sunshine,  even  in  the  coldest  weather, 
to  compete  again  on  better  terms  with  his  Northern  competitor. 

Some  time  since  I  received  a  letter  from  a  grower  in  the  Berkshire  Hills 
of  Massachusetts,  saying  that  he  was  there  engaged  in  the  business  of  forcing 
cucumbers  in  winter.  He  said  that  there  he  was  obliged  to  use  double-glazed 
sashes  on  his  house,  a  very  expensive  heating  apparatus  and  a  great  deal  of 
coal,  and  still  the  business  was  a  remunerative  one.  He  had  formed  the  idea 
that  in  the  Upper  South  he  could  find  a  climate  better  adapted  to  winter  forc- 
ing by  reason  of  a  milder  winter  and  more  sunshine,  which  would  necessitate 
less  expense  in  construction  and  maintenance,  while  not  much  further  to  ship 
the  products  than  from  Massachusetts  to  New  York.  T  told  him  that  there  was 
no  doubt  about  the  feasibility  of  the  plan.  The  indications,  therefore,  are 
that  the  example  set  by  the  energetic  growers  of  New  England  and  the  North 


338 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

will  gradually  extend  this  winter  forcing  southward.  One  of  the  leading 
winter  crops  under  glass  in  the  North  has  for  many  years  been  that  of  lettuce, 
and  the  demand  for  winter  lettuce  is  such  that  the  business  has  extended 
greatly,  and  the  Arlington  growers  in  the  vicinity  of  Boston,  have  become 
famous  for  their  product.  A  number  of  years  ago  the  writer  conceived  the 
idea  that  lettuce  could  be  grown  with  success  southward  by  the  aid  of  cold 
frames,  at  far  less  expense  than  in  the  heated  structures  used  in  New  Eng- 
land. At  that  time  we  were  located  in  Northern  Maryland,  and  the  markets 
of  Baltimore  and  Washington  were  then  largely  supplied  with  Boston  lettuce. 
With  perfect  faith  in  the  feasibility  of  growing  good  winter  lettuce  in  frames 
I  began  the  culture  with  600  sashes  3x6  feet,  and  with  the  aid  of  straw  mats 
found  no  difficulty  in  producing  there  first-class  lettuce,  and  in  selling  it 
readily  in  the  markets  of  Baltimore  and  Philadelphia 

Coming  South  in  later  years  I  urged  upon  our  growers  the  great  profit 
that  could  be  derived  from  frame  culture  in  a  mild  climate,. and  to  show  my 
faith  I  put  down  1,000  sashes  at  Old  Point  Comfort,  Va.,  for  the  growing 
of  lettuce  and  cauliflower  for  the  New  York  market  and  the  supply  of  the 
great  Hygeia  Hotel,  and  the  culture  was  even  more  successful  than  in  Mary- 
land. Still  later,  in  North  Carolina,  I  urged  the  culture  of  winter  crops  in 
simple  frames  on  the  attention  of  our  growers.  But  as  soon  as  a  Southern 
market  gardener  begins  to  contemplate  anything  like  cold  weather  work  he 
thinks  of  some  cheap  substitute  for  glass,  and  has  a  notion  that  cotton  cloth 
will  answer  all  purposes  in  his  climate.  Our  growers  took  hold  of  the  lettuce 
idea,  but  could  not  get  the  nerve  to  invest  in  glass,  hence  the  business  in  the 
South  has  largely  been  developed  under  cloth  in  lieu  of  glass,  and  though  the 
cloth  is  a  poor  substitute  for  glass  the  great  adaptability  of  the  climate  to  the 
purpose  has  enabled  them  to  make  large  profits  from  the  crop  grown  under 
these  crude  conditions,  and  it  will  not  be  long  before  the  more  far  sighted 
will  perceive  the  necessity  and  the  profit  of  using  glass.  Then,  with  the  be- 
ginning of  frame  culture  the  transition  will  be  easy  to  regular  greenhouse 
structures  and  artificial  heat  for  regular  winter  forcing. 

The  production  of  vegetables,  fruits  and  flowers  under  glass  in  winter 
even  in  the  sections  of  the  country  where  it  has  most  developed,  and  where 
acres  are  covered  with  houses  for  the  business,  is  still  in  its  evolutionary  stage, 
and  with  the  rapid  increase  in  population  and  wealth  in  the  great  cities,  and 
the  perfection  of  the  means  for  the  rapid  transport  of  the  products,  the  busi- 
ness will  extend  to  sections  where  the  growers  have  heretofore  simply  been 
relying  upon  the  advantage  their  climate  gives  them,  and  have  been  inclined 
to  be  extensive  rather  than  intensive  cultivators.  Our  people,  especially  in 
the  South,  have  always  been  anxious  to  be  large  farmers,  large  truckers  and 


Gardening  Under  Glass — 339 

small-  fruit  growers,  and  to  get  a  reputation  for  the  extent  of  their  operations 
rather  than  the  perfection  of  their  product.  With  the  inception  of  winter 
gardening,  even  with  the  crude  aid  of  plant-cloth,  there  is  already  a  disposi- 
tion to  concentrate  capital  and  labor  on  smaller  areas,  as  it  becomes  evident 
that  the  man  who  pays  more  attention  to  quality  than  quantity  will  win  in  the 
competition  with  his  neighbors.  The  effort  that  the  Northern  growers  have 
made  by  the  erection  of  expensive  greenhouse  plants,  to  compete  with  this  in 
more  favored  climates,  is  leading  to  the  same  effort  on  the  part  of  the  growers 
in  the  upper  South,  who  are  beginning  to  realize  the  advantage  their  rapid 
transportation  facilities  give  them  in  sending  products  of  a  very  perishable 
nature,  which  those  still  further  South  cannot  handle  on  equal  terms. 

But  it  is  not  merely  of  the  Southern  development  we  would  treat  in  this 
book,  but  of  winter  culture  under  glass  generally,  and  the  part  that  commer- 
cial fertilizers  are  everywhere  taking  in  this  culture.  The  older  winter  forc- 
ers in'  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  Northern  cities,  like  the  market  gardeners 
there  in  the  open  ground,  have  long  enjoyed  the  advantage  which  comes  to  the 
gardener  from  the  ability  to  command  large  supplies  of  stable  manure,  but 
the  progress  of  market  gardening  southward  has  been  made  possible  solely, 
through  the  agency  of  commercial  fertilizers  and  railroads.  Even  in  those 
parts  of  the  country  where  there  was  the  ability  to  command  supplies  of  stable 
manure,  the  growers  under  glass  and  in  the  open  ground  have  long  since 
found  out  the  great  advantage  of  having  manures  which  are  more  completely 
adapted  to  the  making  of  a  balanced  ration  for  their  plants  than  was  possible 
where  stable  manure  alone  was  used.  Hence  there  are  no  men  who  are  study- 
ing the  use  of  commercial  fertilizers  more  closely  than  the  gardeners  under 
glass,  whether  florists  or  vegetable  forcers,  and  it  is  in  the  interest  of  this 
class  that  we  have  determined  to  prepare  this  part  of  our  book.  We  propose 
to  treat  the  subject  from  the  simple  frame  and  its  use  North  and  South  to  the 
more  elaborate  forcing  house  in  use  in  the  North  and  gradually  coming  south- 
ward; hence  we  will  begin  with  the  crops  that  have  attained  the  greatest 
commercial  importance. 

WINTER   LETTUCE. 

Few  of  our  friends  on  the  farm  who  have  never  had  an  opportunity  to 
observe  the  culture,  have  any  notion  of  the  great  extent  to  which  the  growing 
of  so  simple  a  crop  as  lettuce  has  developed.  The  consumption  of  lettuce  in 
all  of  our  larger  cities  and  towns  has  wonderfully  increased  of  late  years. 
Thirty  years  ago,  when  the  writer  began  to  cultivate  frame  lettuce  in  Mary- 
land, the  demiand  was  limited  to  the  wealthy  and  better  hotels  and  restaurants, 
and  few  people  of  moderate  means  ever  saw  a  head  of  lettuce  in  winter. 


340 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

Even  now  the  crop  in  the  dead  of  winter  does  not  bring  as  large  a  price  as 
in  the  early  spring  months,  when  every  one  begins  to  crave  salads,  and  while 
the  winter  crop,  if  well  grown,  is  a  very  profitable  one  and  one  that  has  never 
known  a  glut,  the  experience  of  all  growers  is,  we  believe,  that  the  crop  of 
March  and  April  always  brings  the  largest  price  by  reason  of  the  increased 
demand. 

LETTUCE   IN    COLD   FRAMES. 

The  cultivation  of  the  crop  in  cold  frames  must,  of  course,  be  confined, 
in  winter,  to  those  sections  of  the  country  where  either  a  simple  sash  suffices 
for  its  protection  and  growth,  or  where  the  aid  of  a  straw  mat  is  sufficient; 
in  colder  sections  the  frame  is  simply  used  to  carry  plants  over  the  winter  for 
spring  setting,  to  make  an  early  crop  in  open  ground.  There,  the  winter  cul- 
ture must  be  in  greenhouses,  constructed  for  the  purpose  and  properly  fitted 
with  apparatus  for  heating.  The  manurial  requirements  of  the  lettuce  crop 
are  mainly  for  nitrogen  and  potash,  and  the  soils  in  which  the  crop  is  most 
successful  are  usually  deficient  in  just  these  elements;  for  the  sandy  lands 
of  the  Atlantic  coast  are  the  best  soils  for  the  lettuce  crop.  In  fact,  in  a  clay 
soil,  no  matter  how  fertile,  the  crop,  especially  of  the  heading  sort,  can  never 
compete  with  that  grown  in  a  sandy  loam;  so  that  growers  in  a  different 
soil  are  obliged  to  prepare  an  artificial  soil  to  meet  the  needs  of  the  crop. 

There  are  two  general  classes  of  lettuce  grown,  and  innumerable  varie- 
ties. The  commercial  grower,  however,  rarely  experiments  with  strange  sorts, 
but  sticks  to  the  one  that  has  proved  best  for  his  purpose.  The  growers  who 
are  supplying  the  markets  of  the  eastern  cities  invariably  grow  a  heading 
lettuce,  while  those  whose  market  is  in  the  western  cities  invariably  find  that 
the  curled  sorts  are  most  called  for.  A  large  grower  of  plants,  whose  sales 
extend  to  all  parts  of  the  country,  recently  said  to  me  that  he  had  not  for 
years  sold  any  lettuce  plants  west  except  the  curled  variety,  known  as  the 
Grand  Eapids,  and  that  he  never  had  a  call  for  the  Grand  Eapids  lettuce 
from  any  eastern  grower,  for  they  always  want  either  the  Boston  Market  or 
the  Big  Boston.  People  of  critical  taste,  who  have  an  opportunity  to  test 
the  difference  between  the  curled  lettuces  and  the  heading  (or  cabbage) 
ports,  invariably  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  loose,  curled  lettuces  are  of 
far  superior  quality  to  the  cabbage  sorts.  But  the  market  gardener  cannot 
afford  to  do  missionary  work  or  to  try  to  educate  the  public  taste  for  what 
they  do  not  call  for;  he  must  take  his  market  as  he  finds  it,  and  cater  to 
what  the  people  call  for.  Therefore,  if  the  grower  is  sending  his  crop  to  a 
western  market  he  should  grow  the  lettuce  that  the  western  market  demands, 
and  so  also  with  the  grower  for  the  eastern  cities.     The  lettuce  crop  is  one 


Gardening  Under  Glass — 341 

the  culture  of  which  cannot  extend  so  far  south  as  that  of  many  other  crops 
of  the  market  garden.  It  is  of  such  a  perishable  nature  that  the  grower,  to 
make  a  regular  profit,  must  be  within  twenty  hours  at  furthest  from  his 
market,  and  the  grower  in  the  farther  South  can  never  compete  in  this  crop 
on  equal  terms  with  his  more  Northern  brother  of  the  upper  South;  hence, 
the  culture  has  not  progressed  much  further  south  than  the  vicinity  of 
Wilmington,  N.  C.  There,  and  along  the  line  of  the  railroad  known  as 
the  "CoastLine"  in  N.  C,  there  has  been  the  greatest  development  of  the  cul- 
ture, and  generally  entirely  under  cloth.  The  growers  build  frames  twelve 
feet  wide,  with  a  ridge  pole  running  through  nearer  the  north  than  the  south 
side,  so  as  to  make  a  short  span  to  the  north  and  a  long  one  to  the  south.  The 
ridge  pole  is  about  four  feet  high,  and  twilled  cotton  cloth  is  attached  to 
rollers,  like  an  awing  rolling  up  to  the  ridge  pole  to  give  air,  and  running 
down  and  fastening  to  the  sides  of  the  frame  with  harness  snaps.  It  costs 
about  $500  per  acre  to  construct  and  prepare  these  frames  for  the  growing 
of  the  lettuce.  A  site  is  generally  selected  where  the  soil  is  of  a  sandy 
nature,  and  large  quantities  of  woods  earth,  which  has  been  piled  and  sweet- 
ened over  one  season,  are  dug  into  the  soil.  Commercial  fertilizers  contain- 
ing 5  per  cent,  of  nitrogen,  7  per  cent,  of  phosphoric  acid  and  QPD  of  potash 
are  used  at  the  rate  of  one  ton  per  acre.  The  large  percentage  of  potash 
needed  on  these  soils  makes  it  necessary  that  this  part  at  least  of  the  fertilizer 
shall  be  applied  some  time  before  planting  the  crop,  since  it  is  always  used 
in  the  caustic  form  of  a  muriate,  and  if  freshly  applied  to  the  crop  at  planting 
time  it  will  cause  serious  trouble  and  perhaps  destroy  the  plants.  Some  time 
since  a  grower  in  the  eastern  part  of  North  Carolina  sent  me  specimens  of 
his  young  lettuce  plants  and  wanted  to  know  what  disease  had  attacked  them. 
The  edges  of  leaves  were  turning  red,  and  examination  showed  that  the  tips 
of  the  roots  were  destroyed.  I  wrote  him  that  in  my  opinion  they  were  burnt 
by  the  fertilizer,  and  to  test  the  matter  I  planted  them  in  my  own  frames  and 
they  grew  finely  and  made  good  lettuce.  He  answered  that  he  had  just  ap- 
plied a  large  dressing  of  fertilizer  containing  10  per  cent,  of  potash,  and  set 
the  plants  at  once.  The  result  was  that  he  had  to  replant  his  entire  crop 
after  exposing  the  frames  to  the  rains  for  some  time,  and  was  thrown  out  of 
the  early  winter  crop  entirely.  Growers  of  frame  lettuce  in  the  South  gener- 
ally endeavor  to  get  two  crops  during  the  season,  the  first  during  the  early 
part  of  December  and  up  to  Christmas,  and  then  replant  for  the  spring  crop 
in  March.  Some  growers  make  no  effort  to  produce  the  December  crop,  since 
they  claim  that  the  replanting  of  the  frames  renders  the  lettuce  liable  to  dis- 
ease and  damages  the  March  crop  which  is  of  more  value  than  the  December 
crop. 


342 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

Southern  Head  lettuce,  when  well  grown,  usually  brings  $5  per  barrel 
in  December,  while  the  same  quality  of  lettuce  will  usually,  in  March,  bring 
$10  per  barrel.  Some  of  the  more  thoughtful  growers  are  finding  out  that 
lettuce  of  fine  quality,  shipped  in  neat  boxes,  will  bring  a  better  price  than 
that  shipped  in  barrels,  as  it  gets  to  market  in  better  shape.  ThosQ  who  grow 
only  the  March  crop  claim  that  this  one  crop  brings  them  about  $3,000  per 
acre  of  frames,  and  they  all  admit  that  with  glass  sashes  they  can  produce 
a  finer  quality  of  lettuce  and  have  less  danger  of  loss  from  unusual  cold  or 
snow  than  under  the  cloth,  but  they  hesitate  to  expend  the  $4,000  it  requires 
to  cover  an  acre  with  glass  frames.  I  have  endeavored  to  show  our  growers 
that  in  the  long  run  their  cloth  covered  frames  are  the  more  costly  of  the 
two,  for  sashes  made  of  cypress  timber  and  kept  well  painted  will  be  good  for 
twenty  years,  while  the  cloth  must  be  renewed  at  least  once  in  two  years,  and 
sometimes  lasts  but  a  season ;  so  that  the  extra  price  gotten  for  lettuce  grown 
under  glass,  will  in  a  few  years  make  good  the  difference  in  first  cost,  and,  in 
fact,  will  pay  at  once.  To  test  the  matter  I  built  and  planted  a  considerable 
area  in  glass  frames  the  past  fall,  and  planted  them  in  Big  Boston  lettuce. 
By  the  middle  of  February  I  had  sold  lettuce  for  double  the  cost  of  the 
frames,  and  had  the  sashes  ready  to  produce  spring  crops  of  radishes  and 
beets,  and  to  harden  off  my  early  tomato  plants.  In  other  words,  counting 
the  area  covered  with  glass  by  the  acre,  I  had  in  these  few  months  sold  lettuce 
at  the  rate  of  $7,260  per  acre.  Since  an  acre  can  be  covered  solid  with  glass 
sashes  for  $4,000  it  would  seem  to  be  a  good  business  proposition  to  use  the 
glass  in  place  of  the  cloth,  especially  as  a  second  crop  from  same  sashes  will 
be  ready  in  March.  The  disadvantages  of  the  cloth  covered  frames  are  sev- 
eral. When  the  weather  is  cold,  even  when  the  sun  shines,  the  cloth  must  be 
kept  on,  and  the  partial  shade  draws  the  plants  and  makes  them  less  sturdy. 
If  snow  happens  to  fall  it  must  be  hurriedly  gotten  off  or  serious  damage 
will  result,  and  as  a  cold  wave  usually  follows  a  snow  storm,  the  frames  are 
then  protected  only  by  the  thin  cloth.  With  glass  ashes,  when  the  sun  shines, 
no  matter  how  low  the  mercury  may  be,  a  little  air  will  be  given  and  the 
bright  sunshine  makes  the  plants  grow  stout  and  sturdy,  and  prevents  at- 
tacks of  rot  that  the  close  air  under  cloth  may  favor.  Then,  when  snow  falls, 
we  let  it  lie  on  the  glass  as  an  efficient  protection  from  the  following  cold. 
My  lettuce  grown  under  sashes  was  sold  without  expense,  to  grocer3rmen  who 
sent  their  wagons  to  my  place  for  it  daily,  and  paid  $1  per  dozen  heads  for 
it.  Grown  on  a  larger  scale,  of  course,  I  would  have  to  take  the  chances  of 
the  larger  Northern  markets,  as  the  other  growers  do;  but  still,  with  the 
superior  product  packed  in  neat  crates  or  carriers,  it  would  be  sold  by  the 
dozen  in  direct  competition  with  the  hothouse  lettuce  of  the  Boston  growers. 


Gardening  Under  Glass — 343 

and  not  as  Southern  lettuce,  by  the  barrel.  For  home  use  we  greatly  prefer 
the  Grand  Rapids  lettuce  to  the  heading  lettuce  of  any  kind,  but  as  we  have 
said,  the  grower  must  cater  to  his  market,  and  until  the  people  of  the  East 
find  out  the  superiority  of  the  curled  lettuce  the  growers  cannot  afford  to  pro- 
duce it.  For  the  Christmas  crop  of  lettuce  we  sow  the  Big  Boston  seed  in 
late  August  in  the  open  ground,  and  make  another  sowing  or  two  in  Septem- 
ber. The  plants  are  set  in  the  frames,  prepared  as  we  have  described  to  be  cov- 
ered with  cloth,  or  in  frames  six  feet  wide  and  fourteen  inches  deep  to  be 
covered  with  glass  sashes  three  feet  wide  and  six  feet  long,  laid  crosswise  the 
frames.  The  plants  are  set  as  soon  as  large  enough,  and  are  shaded  for  a 
while  till  they  get  started.  No  cover  is  placed  over  them  until  there  is  danger 
that  the  mercury  will  fall  below  freezing  at  night,  and  then  the  cover  must 
be  removed  daily  to  prevent  too  rapid  and  flabby  a  growth,  for  lettuce  grown 
with  a  high  temperature  will  not  only  not  head  so  well,  but  will  be  too  flabby 
to  ship  in  good  order.  An  acre  of  frames  will  require  the  constant  attention 
of  two  or  three  men  all  winter,  if  the  two  crops  are  grown.  One  grower  of  our 
acquaintance  keeps  eight  men  to  manage  three  and  a  half  acres  in  lettuce 
frames  during  the  winter;  these  same  men  of  course  attend  to  the  shipping. 
While  in  the  South  the  sashes  are  usually  sufficient  to  protect  and  grow  let- 
tuce, the  wise  grower  will  always  have  at  hand  some  mats  to  cover  the  glass 
in  exceptionally  cold  spells.  We  make  these  mats  from  the  common  broom- 
sedge  of  the  South,  which  is  the  cheapest  and  most  lasting  material  we  can 
get.  They  are  made  four  feet  wide  and  seven  feet  long  so  as  to  break  joints 
and  cover  all  cracks  between  sashes ;  in  our  coldest  weather  we  can  completely 
exclude  frost  with  these  mats.  Lettuce,  until  it  heads,  does  not  mind  consid- 
erable frost,  but  when  the  head  is  formed  it  is  essential  to  keep  the  frost  out, 
as  it  is  then  easily  damaged.  We  always  let  the  later  sowings  remain  in  the 
open  ground,  so  as  to  have  them  ready  for  replanting  at  any  time,  as  the 
plants  will  come  through  the  winter  in  the  open  ground  here  easily,  in  a  place 
sliglitly  sheltered  from  the  cold  winds.  The  culture  of  lettuce  in  frames  in 
the  South  is  so  easy  and  simple  that  no  farmer's  family  should  be  without  a 
full  supply  during  the  winter,  hence  a  few  sashes  should  always  be  found  in 
every  farm  garden. 

MAKING  THE  FRAMES. 

We  construct  cold  frames  of  any  convenient  length,  running  east  and 
west.  The  back  (or  north)  side  we  make  of  inch  and  a  half  plank  18  inches 
high,  and  the  front  (  or  south)  side  12  inches  high.  These  sides  are  nailed 
to  posts  on  the  outside,  firmly  set  in  the  ground  for  if  not  attached  in  this  way, 
the  sides  soon  get  tilted  out  of  the  perpendicular.      Some  growers  make  no 


344 — Chop  Gkowing  and  Crop  Feeding 

cross  bars  to  the  frames,  but  simply  set  the  sashes  across.  This  is  cheaper, 
of  course,  but  it  involves  two  men  always  at  hand  on  each  side  of  the  frames  to 
handle  the  sashes,  hence  we  prefer  to  go  to  the  extra  expense  of  dovetailing 
into  each  side,  every  3  feet,  a  2x4  inch  piece.  This  is  not  nailed  fast  to  the 
sides,  but  simply  dovetailed  so  that  it  can  be  knocked  out  of  the  way  when 
preparing  the  bed.  On  the  middle  of  this  piece  we  nail  an  inch  strip  to  serve 
as  a  parting  strip  between  the  sashes  and  so  make  a  slide  on  which  one  man 
easily  slides  the  sashes  up  or  down  for  ventilation.  The  sashes  are  the  regu- 
lar three  by  six  foot  size,  and  cost  now,  complete,  about  $1.50  each,  made  of 
clear  white  pine  or  cypress.  Our  Southern  yellow  pine  makes  a  very  heavy 
sash  and  one  that  does  not  hold  paint  well,  and  is  more  apt  to  warp  than 
those  made  of  white  pine  or  cypress.  We  never  use  a  puttied  sash  on  the 
frames.  They  are  simply  grooved  so  that  the  glass  slips  in  easily  and  rests 
butted  against  the  pane  above.  A  tack  at  ihe  bottom  holds  the  whole  row  in 
place  and  when  a  pane  gets  broken,  all  we  have  to  do  is  to  slip  the  row  up 
and  run  in  another  pane  at  the  bottom.  This  makes  the  sash  much  lighter 
than  if  it  is  puttied  and  the  glass  lapped. 

SOIL  AND  PLANTING 

Soil  is  a  very  important  matter  in  the  growing  of  frame  lettuce,  for  the 
character  of  the  soil  affects  the  crop  more  than  in  the  case  of  many  other 
plants.  Lettuce  prefers  a  sandy  soil,  and  as  the  frames  in  which  winter  let- 
tuce is  grown  are  fixed  affairs  we  must,  in  order  to  make  a  rotation,  change 
the  soil  instead  of  the  plants.  We  clean  out  the  frames  every  fall  and  use 
the  contents  as  manure  elsewhere.  Beginning  in  early  spring,  we  prepare 
a  compost  for  the  frames  the  coming  fall,  for  it  must  be  turned  and  rotted  and 
fined  during  the  whole  summer.  To  make  this  compost  we  gather  oak  leaves, 
grass  sods  and  manure  and  pile  them  in  layers.  As  our  natural  soil  is  stiff 
clay  we  add  to  this  compost  during  the  summer,  all  the  washed  sand  about  the 
place,  and  chop  the  heap  down  and  turn  and  mix  it  several  times  during  the 
summer,  so  that  by  planting  time  it  is  a  mellow,  black  mass  of  loam.  After 
the  frames  are  filled  with  this  prepared  soil  we  apply  to  each  sash  (or  eighteen 
spuare  feet)  five-sixths  of  a  pound  of  concentrated  fertilizer  containing  8  per 
cent,  phosphoric  acid,  5  per  cent,  nitrogen  and  3  per  cent,  potash ;  this  is  about 
the  rate  of  a  ton  per  acre.  This  application  must  be  made  at  least  a  week 
before  planting  and  well  mixed  with  the  soil,  and  if  there  is  no  heavy  rain  in 
the  meantime  the  bed  should  be  well  soaked  before  any  planting  is  done,  so 
that  the  fertilizer  may  get  well  assimilated  with  the  soil  and  not  injure  the 
roots  of  the  plants.     I  have  thus  described  our  practice  because  the  prepara- 


Gardening  Under  Glass — 345 

tion  and  manuring  of  the  soil  is  the  vital  point  in  the  growing  of  frame  let- 
tuce ;  for  an  inferior  article  will  hardly  find  a  market,  while  extra  fine  heads 
always  sell  at  a  good  price. 

We  set  the  plants  of  Big  Boston  lettuce  10x12  inches  apart  in  the  frames 
The  first  crop  is  set  as  soon  as  the  plants  are  large  enough.  Each  sash  is 
watered  as  fast  as  planted,  and  the  sash  put  on  and  covered  with  straw  or  sand 
to  shade  the  plants  till  they  get  hold  of  the  soil ;  then  the  sash  is  taken  off  and 
not  returned  till  the  nights  get  frosty.  In  fact,  there  is  here  very  little  use 
for  the  sashes  till  the  first  crop  is  about  heading,  which  it  should  do  about 
the  first  of  December,  and  be  all  cut  out  by  Christmas.  The  second  crop 
plants,  that  were  sown  in  September,  are  left  in  the  open  ground  and  slightly 
protected  by  leaves  scattered  between  them  (but  not  over  them).  As  fast  as 
the  first  crop  is  cut  out  the  outdoor  plants  are  set  in  their  places,  and  this 
second  crop  should  all  be  ready  to  cut  out  during  March.  In  the  meantime, 
in  the  greenhouse,  wx  have  cucumber  plants  in  pots  of  four-inch  size;  these 
are  set  in  the  centre  of  each  sash  as  fast  as  the  lettuce  is  removed,  and  are 
protected  at  night  so  long  as  the  nights  are  cool,  and  finally  the  frames  are 
left  to  the  cucumbers  and  the  sashes  stored  under  cover  for  another  season, 
after  being  well  painted.  In  some  frames  we  sow  beets  and  radishes  instead' 
of  a  second  crop  of  lettuce,  and  by  careful  attention  can  usually  get  beets 
ready  for  the  table  when  the  seed  sown  in  open  ground  is  getting 
above  the  soil. 

The  growing  of  frame  lettuce  on  a  large  scale  requires  ready  capital,  for, 
while  the  crop,  well  grown,  pays  remarkably  well,  it  also  requires  a  very  ex- 
pensive outfit  and  expensive  preparation  and  fertilization.  But  when  the 
frames  are  properly  attended  to  the  quality  of  the  lettuce  produced  cannot 
be  excelled  by  that  grown  in  the  hothouses  of  Boston  at  a  still  greater  expense. 
To  put  an  acre  of  soil  under  glass  will  cost  $4,000  here,  and  in  some  localities 
more ;  the  preparation  of  the  soil  and  the  fitting  it  and  planting  the  crop  will 
cost  at  least  $200  more.  Of  course  the  outlay  for  the  frames  and  sashes  is  in 
the  shape  of  a  permanent  investment  for  a  number  of  years,  but  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  soil  is  an  annual  job  and  cannot  be  neglected,  for  if  you  allow  the 
old  soil  to  remain,  no  matter  how  well  you  fertilize  it,  the  crop  will  be  less  and 
the  ravages  of  rot  will  soon  make  the  saving  an  expense  rather  than  a  gain, 
for  with  the  best  precautions  there  will  always  be  a  little  root  rot  among  the 
head  lettuce,  though  generally  very  little  among  the  curled  leaf  sorts. 

We  formerly  used  and  advised  a  fertilizer  for  lettuce  containing  10  per 
cent,  potash,  but  we  have  found  that  this  amount  is  not  needed,  and  makes 
the  risk  of  damage  too  great  in  such  heavy  fertilization,  and  we  now  use  but 
3  per  cent,  of  potash. 


346 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

cauliflower  and  lettuce  combined. 

Well  grown  cauliflowers  will  always  bring  a  good  price  in  April,  and  this 
is  about  the  only  crop  of  cauliflowers  that  can  be  well  grown  in  the  South, 
as  it  is  difficult  to  get  summer  plants  through  our  long,  hot  seasons;  hence 
it  is  necessary  to  call  in  the  help  of  the  frames  to  forward  the  crop  for  the 
early  spring  market.  The  seed  for  this  purpose  is  sown  early  in  September, 
and  in  a  rich  and  moist  bed,  and  the  plants  are  grown  on  rapidly  by  abundant 
watering  in  dry  weather.  The  frames  are  prepared  in  the  same  careful  man- 
ner as  are  those  in  which  the  lettuce  crop  is  grown  alone.  Six  plants  of  the 
cauliflower  are  set  at  uniform  distances  in  each  sash,  and  the  spaces  are  then 
filled  in  with  Tennis  Ball  or  Boston  Market  lettuce ;  the  Big  Boston  not  being 
suitable  for  this  purpose  on  account  of  its  size.  This  lettuce  is  from  seed 
sown  at  the  same  time  with  the  cauliflower,  and  is  intended  to  be  ready  for 
market  during  the  month  of  January  and  in  early  February.  By  the  time  the 
lettuce  is  cut  out,  the  cauliflower  plants  are  beginning  to  crowd  to  the  glass, 
and  to  carry  the  crop  on  with  success  it  is  necessary  to  have  an  extra  set  of 
frames.  The  cauliflowers  are  gradually  hardened  off  till  the  second  week  in 
March  the  sashes  are  entirely  removed;  these  are  then  placed  on  the  extra 
frames  and  are  used  either  for  the  forwarding  of  the  tomato  plants  and  other 
things  from  the  greenhouse  or  hotbed,  or  for  growing  a  later  crop  of  lettuce, 
and  in  this  case  the  later  crop  should  be  of  the  Tennisball,  too,  as  it  will  get 
into  head  before  the  weather  is  too  warm.  The  cauliflowers  will  generally 
head  well  in  April,  and  at  that  time  well  grown  cauliflower  sells  very  well. 
The  important  thing  so  far  as  the  success  of  the  cauliflower  is  concerned 
is  to  never  let  the  plants  have  the  least  check  in  their  growth,  but  to  keep  them 
steadily  growing  without  keeping  them  so  close  as  to  make  them  tender.  Any 
serious  check  will  cause  them  to  form  heads  prematurely  and  make  "buttons," 
as  the  gardeners  call  them,  instead  of  large  and  fully  developed  heads. 


RADISHES  AND  BEETS  IN  FRAMES. 

The  Southern  gardener,  who  realizes  the  great  advantage  his  sunny  cli- 
mate gives  him  for  frame  culture,  will  not  be  satisfied  with  the  growing  of  a 
single  crop.  There  will  always  be  a  great  advantage  in  having  fully  double 
the  space  in  frames  that  he  has  glass  to  cover,  so  that  when  a  half  hardy  crop 
can  be  exposed  to  outer  air  towards  spring  he  can  transfer  the  glass  to  other 
frames,  and  for  the  growing  of  other  crops  and  the  hardening  off  of  the  plants 
ihat  are  to  go  into  the  open  ground  later.     But  there  are  two  crops  which  he 


Gardening  Under  Glass — 347 

can  well  afford  to  give  the  entire  winter  frames  to.  These  are  early  beets 
and  radishes.  On  warm  and  sheltered  borders  the  seed  of  the  Chinese  Rose 
Colored  radish  can  be  sown  here  in  late  September,  and  with  a  slight  cover 
of  strawy  manure  as  the  weather  gets  cold,  the  crop  can  be  marketed  all 
through  January,  as  we  did  the  present  season.  In  fact,  our  last  radishes  of 
this  kind  were  sold  from  the  open  ground  in  February,  and  were  still  in  good 
condition  for  use.  But  for  the  best  trade  the  more  tender,  forcing  radishes 
are  far  better,  and  these  must  have  the  protection  of  the  sashs  and  mats ;  we 
use  the  turnip  rooted  varieties  entirely  for  the  frames.  Having  a  frame  from 
which  a  crop  of  lettuce  has  been  cut  for  the  Christmas  market,  we  give  a  light 
application  of  nitrogenous  fertilizer,  generally  of  nitrate  of  soda,  and  sow  the 
radishes  and  beets  in  rows  ten  inches  apart,  and  as  soon  as  up,  thin  them  to  an 
inch  or  two  apart  for  the  radishes  and  three  for  the  beets ;  we  use  the  Crosby 
Egyptian  beet  for  frame  sowing.  Air  is  given  in  all  sunny  weather  and  the 
bed  kept  clean  of  weeds  with  hand  weeders.  Frost  must  be  rigidly  excluded 
by  banking  the  outside  of  the  frames  and  by  covering  with  mats  during  cold 
nights,  and  in  this  climate  there  is  no  great  difficulty  in  entirely  excluding 
frost  from  a  cold  frame.  If  the  seeds  are  sown  the  first  of  January,  the 
radish  crop  should  be  ready  to  pull  by  the  time  the  beets  badly  need  thinning, 
and  the  thinned  out  beets  are  transplanted  to  take  their  place,  so  that  the  en- 
tire frame  is  then  beets ;  and  this  beet  crop  should  be  ready  to  bunch  the  latter 
part  of  March.  All  of  these  practices  and  dates  are  for  the  central  part  of 
North  Carolina,  and  further  south  the  practice  would  be  somewhat  modified ; 
but  there  is  no  section  north  of  Florida  where  the  sashes  of  glass  will  not  be 
more  profitable  than  the  poor  substitute  of  plant  cloth,  which  rarely  excludes 
frost  in  cold  weather  and  is  a  makeshift  at  best. 

The  later  uses  for  the  sashes,  so  long  as  the  nights  are  cool,  have  been  sug- 
gested in  the  setting  of  cucumber  plants  under  the  sashes;  a  further  late  and 
summer  use  for  the  frames  can  be  made  with  the  esfg  plant  and  tomato. 
When  the  tomatoes  are  transplanted  to  the  open  ground,  which  here  is  usually 
in  early  April,  the  nights  are  still  cool  and  it  is  too  early  to  trust  the  tender 
egg  plants  outside.  We  have  these  grown  in  pots  in  the  greenhouse,  so  as  to 
have  by  this  time  very  large  plants  in  four-inch  pots.  Some  tomato  plants 
are  potted  in  the  same  way  and  kept  near  the  glass  to  keep  them  short  and 
stout.  Two  egg  plants  are  then  set  under  each  sash  and  under  others  one 
tomato  plant  is  set  to  each  sash.  Of  course  the  sun  is  now  warm  and  the 
plants  will  need  little  protection  in  daylight,  but  the  sashes  are  run  over  them 
at  night,  to  keep  up  the  rapid  growth,  till  finally  the  plants  crowd  against 
the  glass,  the  nights  get  warm  and  they  are  turned  loose.  In  the  fat  soil  of 
the  lettuce  frames  the  plants  attain  a  luxuriance  far  greater  than  in  the  gen- 


348 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

eral  plantation,  and  the  tomato  plants  are  trained  to  stakes  with  a  single  stem, 
a  practice  we  have  abandoned  in  the  general  crop,  but  which  is  desirable  here 
for  an  extra  early  crop.  Under  this  treatment  we  can  get  ripe  fruit  from 
Maulers  Earliest  tomato  the  first  of  June,  and  have  had  stray  specimens  ripe 
in  May. 

Of  course  we  use  the  sashes  for  the  hardening  off  of  the  general  early  crop 
of  tomatoes  to  go  into  the  open  ground,  but  we  never  attempt  the  hardening 
off  of  the  egg  plant.  All  that  we  have  not  room  for  in  the  spare  frames  are 
kept  under  glass  in  the  pots  till  the  nights  are  warm,  for  a  check  to  an  egg 
plant  is  ruin  for  the  season. 


COLD  FRAME  CULTURE  IN  MORE  NORTHERN  SECTIONS. 

What  we  have  written  has  been  more  especially  in  reference  to  the  prac- 
tice best  adapted  to  the  section  from  Virginia  southward,  but  the  use  of  frames 
for  the  culture  of  the  lettuce  crop  can  easily  be  extended  to  the  latitude  of 
Philadelphia  on  the  eastern  coast  of  the  United  States,  and  Kentucky  in  the 
central  section.  North  of  Virginia  it  will  be  necessary  to  carry  the  plants 
for  the  second  crop  in  winter  in  extra  frames,  where  they  will  simply  have  the 
protection  of  the  sashes  and  be  kept  in  a  hardy  condition  till  needed.  We 
have  grown  frame  lettuce  on  a  large  scale  and  with  profit  in  the  jiorthcrn  part 
of  the  Eastern  Shore  of  Maryland,  and  also  in  a  very  cold  locality  in  the  ele- 
vated country  north  of  Baltimore  city,  where  we  had  a  winter  climate  colder 
than  that  of  Philadelphia.  In  this  instance  our  frames  were  built  of  brick 
and  sunk  below  the  general  level,  and  we  used  tongued  and  grooved  shutters 
for  covering  the  frames  in  cold  weather.  In  this  way  we  grew  the  winter  crop 
of  lettuce  and  headed  it  with  perfect  success  in  winters  when  the  mercury  fell 
to  eighteen  degrees  below  zero,  and  yet  no  frost  got  into  the 
frames  to  do  any  damage.  Under  such  conditions,  however,  the 
question  may  arise  whether  it  would  not  be  better  to  use  heated 
.srreenhouses  at  once,  for  under  these  climatic  conditions,  and  the 
constant  presence  of  heavy  snowfall,  the  attention  to  the  frames  was  a 
serious  matter,  and  the  labor  of  constant  cleaning  of  snow  and  the  taking  off 
and  on  of  the  heavy  shutters,  which  required  two  men  to  handle,  made  the 
culture  nearly  as  expensive  as  it  would  have  been  in  houses  heated  by  hot 
water,  where  the  work  could  at  least  have  been  more  comfortably  done.  There- 
fore, in  sections  where  the  winter  temperature  is  apt  to  go  below  zero  and 
there  is  a  heavy  snowfall,  it  will  be  found  better  to  use  greenhouses  for  all 
winter  forcing  of  vegetable  crops. 


Gardening  Under  Glass — 349 
frame  culture  of  flowers. 

From  Virginia  southward  the  simple  cold  frame,  constructed  and  oper- 
ated as  for  the  lettuce  crop,  can  be  made  a  very  profitable  means  for  the  pro- 
curing of  a  supply  of  many  kinds  of  flowers  during  the  winter.  While  from 
North  Carolina  southward  the  single  Luxonne  violet  grows  and  blooms  with 
hardly  any  care  all  winter,  in  the  open  air,  yet  at  times  the  prevalence  of  frost 
will  seriously  damage  the  flowers.  Then,  too,  the  double  flowered  sorts,  such 
as  Marie  Louise  and  Lady  Hume  Campbell,  are  more  tender  and  apt  to  be 
damaged  in  the  open  ground  in  severe  spells,  while  they  bloom  freely  and  con- 
tinuously in  the  frames  treated  just  as  we  do  lettuce.  With  the  rapid  im- 
provement in  the  means  for  transportation,  the  florist  of  the  Upper  South 
should  be  able  to  put  his  cut  flowers  on  the  New  York  market  in  the  best 
condition.  The  florists  in  all  the  Southern  cities  now  get  large  quantities  of 
cut  flowers  from  the  commission  men  in  New  York,  and  they  are  sent  here  in 
fine  condition.  These  flowers  are  cut  in  New  Jersey  and  other  districts 
around  New  York  and  sent  to  the  commission  men,  and  if  they  can  then  send 
them  South  safely,  there  is  no  reason  why  the  more  cheaply  grown  product 
of  the  Upper  South  at  least,  should  not  find  a  market  in  the  North.  Violets 
can  be  grown  as  well  and  as  plentifully  here  in  cold  frames  as  they  are  grown 
in  the  greenhouses  North,  and  if  as  well  grown  they  will  command  as  good 
a  price.  Then,  too,  the  various  members  of  the  Narcissus  family  and  the 
Roman  hyacinth,  which  here  bloom  in  the  open  ground  from  December  for 
the  Romans,  to  February  and  March  for  the  Narcissus,  and  are  then  subject 
to  be  damaged  by  the  sudden  freezes,  can  be  protected  in  the  frames  and  the 
flowers  cut  in  as  good  condition  as  from  the  forcing  houses  North,  while  the 
bulbs  can  then  be  left  to  fully  mature  and  are  as  good  as  ever,  or  even  better. 
Frame-grown  Narcissus  and  Roman  and  White  Italian  Hyacinths  will,  ere 
long,  be  a  regular  article  for  winter  shipment  from  the  Upper  South,  wherever 
there  is  a  chance  for  their  arrival  in  twelve  to  flf teen  hours. 

Cold-frame  culture  of  flowers  can  even  be  carried  further  than  the  vio- 
lets. Narcissus  and  hyacinths  in  the  Upper  South,  for  with  well  constructed 
frames  giving  more  head  room  than  for  lettuce  and  other  low  crops,  the  carna- 
tion can  be  grown  and  bloomed  here,  with  certainty  and  more  healthily,  than 
in  the  heated  houses  of  the  Northern  florist.  Of  course  the  sides  of  the  frame 
must  be  well  banked  and  the  mats  must  be  used  to  exclude  frost.  This  is 
no  mere  theory,  for  we  have  grown  carnations  successfully  in  this  way 
at  Old  Point  Comfort,  Va.  In  that  case  we  had  our  frames  banked  thickly 
with  seaweed,  which  was  an  abundant  material,  and  which  packs  closely  and  is 
not  blown  off  by  the  wind.     A  foot  thickness  of  the  seaweed  was  packed  all 


350 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

around  the  frames,  and  the  glass  was  protected  by  straw  mats,  made  of 
broomsedge,  which  makes  a  thicker  and  warmer  mat  than  rye  straw.  Of 
course  it  is  more  troublesome  to  attend  to  carnations  in  such  a  frame  than  in 
a  greenhouse,  but  the  crop  is  as  good,  the  plants  more  healthy  and  the  profit 
greater  than  where  a  lot  of  coal  is  burned  in  expensive  boilers  for  heat. 

Our  frames  here,  prepared  in  the  same  way  we  prepared  them  for  lettuce, 
and  planted  in  Marie  Louise  and  Lady  Campbell  violets,  have  given  a  wonder- 
ful bloom  during  the  winter.  But  there  is  so  much  difficulty  in  carrying  the 
double-flowered  violets  through  the  summer  here  that  it  is  advisable  to  get  the 
clumps  from  the  North  annually.  The  single-flowered  Luxonne  violet  has 
become,  here,  almost  a  weed,  and  it  stands  the  long  summer  heat  and  is  such 
a  wonderful  winter  bloomer  that  we  are  inclined  to  believe  that  the  Southern 
grower  had  better  be  content  with  the  single-flowered  violets.  The  single 
variety  of  violet,  known  as  the  California,  will  also  stand  our  summers,  and 
in  late  winter  and  spring  makes  a  splendid  bloom ;  but  does  not  bloom  in  mid- 
winter like  the  Luxonne.  The  Luxonne  seeds  so  freely  here  in  summer  that 
it  has  become,  as  I  have  said,  almost  a  weed,  and  while  it  grows  with  the 
utmost  luxuriance  and  makes  an  immense  bloom  in  the  rich  soil  of  the  frames, 
it  will  grow  and  bloom  in  the  poorest  sandy  soil  of  the  South ;  bloom,  though, 
with  stems  too  short  to  be  used.  We  have  seen  an  old  sand  yard  in  this 
State,  where  not  a  sprig  of  grass  would  grow,  perfectly  blue  with  the  violets 
all  winter  long.  In  preparing  a  frame  for  the  violet  we  make  the  soil  rather 
heavier  than  is  best  for  lettuce,  and  incorporate  a  larger  amount  of  woods 
earth  and  rotten  leaves,  for  the  violet  delights  in  leaf  mold.  Neither  do  we 
make  so  heavy  an  application  of  the  commercial  fertilizer  as  for  the  lettuce 
crop,  but  put  in  a  little  to  give  the  clumps  an  early  start  in  the  fall.  The 
frames  for  the  hyacinths  and  the  Narcissus  we  treat  exactly  as  we  would  for 
the  lettuce  crop.  Roman  h3^acinths  naturally  begin  to  bloom  in  the  open 
ground  here  in  late  December,  if  the  bulbs  are  left  in  the  ground  or  are 
planted  early  in  the  fall.  As  the  flowers  sell  b^st  about  Christmas  it  will  be 
best  not  to  put  the  sashes  on  too  early,  as  they  might  get  the  flowers  too  soon. 
The  first  of  December  is  early  enough  to  use  the  glass  and  this  will  bring  the 
best  spikes  at  Christmas,  and  there  will  be  a  continuation  of  blooms  till  late 
in  January.  In  fact,  with  bulbs  that  were  allowed  to  grow  in  masses  in  the 
frame  and  not  lifted  in  summer,  we  have  cut  flowers  of  fine  size  from  Christ- 
mas to  March,  and  have  sold  $5  worth  of  Roman  hyacinth  flowers  from  a 
sash.  The  variety  of  hyacinth  known  as  the  White  Italian  is  later  and  makes 
longer  and  larger  spikes  than  the  Roman,  and  when  grown  in  frames  makes 
a  fine  cut  flower  for  the  Easter  trade.  The  bulbs  are  planted  in  the  frames, 
in  the  fall,  but  the  sashes  are  not  used  on  them  till  about  six  weeks  before 


Gardening  Under  Glass — 351 

Easter.  We  have  never  used  mats  on  Narcissus  and  hyacinths,  as  the  simple 
cover  of  the  sash  is  all  sufficient  here.  Roman  hyacinths  are  very  unsatisfac- 
tory in  the  South  in  the  open  ground,  from  the  fact  that  they  inveterately 
endeavor  to  bloom  during  the  coldest  weather  we  have.  But  in  frames  they 
are  very  fine,  superior  in  bloom  to  any  forced  greenhouse  spikes.  The  White 
Italian  blooms  in  the  open  air  in  late  March,  and  in  the  frames  can  be  pro- 
tected and  kept  till  Easter.  But  let  no  one  suppose  that  frames  can  be  man- 
aged for  any  crop  in  a  careless  manner;  or  that  anything  less  than  a  careful 
manipulation  of  the  soil  and  the  heavy  application  of  fertilizers  will  give 
good  crops.  An  acre  in  glass-covered  frames  will  give  four  good  men  all  the 
work  they  can  attend  to.  Intensive  gardening  means  rich  soil,  high  manur- 
ing, a  large  investment  of  capital  on  a  small  area,  and  the  closest  attention 
to  details.  Then  it  will  pay  in  a  way  that  the  ordinary  trucker  has  hardly 
dreamed  of ;  but  if  any  of  these  things  are  neglected,  the  gardener  had  better 
let  intensive  winter  work  alone. 

FRAMES  FOR  THE  COMMERCIAL  FLORIST  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

With  all  that  has  been  said  on  the  subject  of  the  use  of  frames  in  the 
South  we  have  hardly  touched  the  value  of  the  simple  sash  in  a  mild  climate. 
The  work  of  propagating  and  selling  plants  at  wholesale  is  being  rapidly 
divided  into  specialties.  Few  of  the  larger  firms  engaged  in  the  culture  of 
the  flowering  plants  now  grow  all  the  plants  they  catalogue.  Certain  sections 
have  been  found  to  be  particularly  well  adapted  to  certain  cultures,  and  there 
growers  have  entered  into  the  culture  of  certain  plants  to  the  exclusion  of  all 
others,  and  are  thus  able  to  produce  a  superior  class  of  plants  at  rates  that 
make  it  more  profitable  for  others  to  buy  from  them  than  to  grow  them  them- 
selves. The  specialization  of  culture  is  more  general  among  the  largest  firms 
in  the  trade  than  among  the  retail  florists  in  small  towns,  who  must  keep  up  a 
variety.  The  large  wholesale  florist  finds  that  he  can  devote  his  glass  to  a  cer- 
tain specialty,  such  as  palms,  and  he  grows  palm  trees  by  the  million,  and 
looks  to  other  specialists  for  his  carnations,  roses  and  other  things  which  he 
can  buy  more  cheaply  than  he  can  grow  them  in  competition  with  his  palms ; 
thus  there  has  gradually  developed  a  division  of  labor.  A  certain  locality 
on  the  Hudson  River  has  been  found  to  be  particularly  well  adapted  to  the 
growing  of  violets  in  great  perfection,  and  growers  there  are  devoting  wide 
fields  to  the  violet  in  summer  and  the  other  men  in  the  trade  buy  from  them 
rather  than  raise  them  in  smaller  lots  for  their  own  trade.  The  soil  and 
climate  of  California  have  been  found  to  be  admirably  adapted  to  the  perfec- 
tion of  seed,  both  of  vegetables  and  flowers,  and  the  trade  is  centering  there. 


352 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

Then  it  has  been  found  that  there  is  a  great  advantage  to  the  Northern 
dealer  to  have  his  roses  grown  in  the  longer  season  of  the  South,  where  the 
plants  are  not  damaged  by  mildew  as  they  are  in  the  North.  The  demand  for 
good  roses  is  practically  unlimited.  Other  plants  may  have  a  popularity  for 
a  time,  but  the  rose  lives  through  every  fashion  and  is  more  and  more  popular 
every  year.  Then  the  immense  numbers  that  are  now  used  by  the  growers 
of  flowers  for  winter  cutting  creates  a  new  demand  for  plants,  and  forms  a 
great  specialty  into  which  skillful  men  in  the  South  can  enter  successfully. 
The  ease  and  cheapness  with  which  roses  can  be  propagated  in  the  South  will 
inevitably  cause  the  culture  to  centre  there,  since  the  Northern  growers  can- 
not compete  with  the  Southern  product  when  it  is  put  on  the  market  in  large 
numbers.  Here,  too,  the  simple  sash  on  a  frame  comes  in  for  profitable  use. 
It  is  found  in  the  North  that  the  tender  sorts  of  roses  like  the  Teas  and  Nois- 
ettes, do  not  root  readily  from  cuttings  grown  in  the  open  ground,  and  the 
plants,  too,  are  not  hardy  enough  to  be  left  in  the  open  ground  in  winter.  In 
the  South  the  plants  are  not  only  hardy,  but  the  cuttings  can  be  rooted  just 
as  easily  as  those  from  the  housed  plants  in  the  North.  Then  in  the  case  of 
that  gorgeous  family  of  roses  known  to  the  trade  as  hybrid  perpetuals,  which 
unlike  the  teas  and  other  everblooming  sorts,  ripen  their  wood  and  drop  their 
leaves  in  the  fall,  this  ripe  w^ood  can  be  made  into  cuttings  eight  or  ten  inches 
long  and  inserted  full  length  in  the  open  ground  in  the  South  in  the  fall, 
slightly  covered  with  pine  leaves  to  prevent  hard  freezing,  and  they  root  with 
ease  and  make  fine  large  bushes  for  shipping  North  in  the  fall  so  that  the 
florists  can  have  them  to  pot  for  spring  sales  of  large  plants. 

propagating  tender  roses  in  the  south. 

This  is  probably  the  most  profitable  use  that  can  be  made  of  cold  frames 
in  the  South,  by  men  who  have  acquired  the  rquisite  skill  in  the  work,  and 
the  method  is  easily  learned  if  the  learner  is  content  to  go  slowly  at  first,  until 
he  has  acquired  the  requisite  skill  in  handling  such  plants ;  for,  no  matter  how 
much  one  may  read  on  such  a  subject,  skill  only  comes  from  practice.  When 
done  on  a  large  commercial  scale,  the  propagation  of  roses  can  be  better  done 
in  a  regular  propagating  house,  where  the  operator  can  work  with  more  ease 
and  in  any  weather;  still,  the  propagation  can  be  carried  on  wdth  the  simple 
frame  with  about  as  much  certainty  as  in  a  well  appointed  propagating  house ; 
of  the  use  of  which  we  will  speak  after  we  have  completed  the  consideration  of 
frames  and  their  use. 

The  propagation  of  tea  and  other  evergreen  roses  should  begin  about  the 
last  of  August,  and  can  here  be  continued  from  cuttings  from  the  open  field 


Gaudemjng  UiNDEu  Ulass — 353 

until  nearly  December.  The  cuttings  used  are  the  young  shoots  that  have 
just  made  a  flower  bud.  The  upper  part  of  such  shoots  will  usually  be  found 
too  soft  for  propagation,  and  some  experience  is  needed  to  detect  the  exact 
condition  of  the  wood  which  is  best  suited  for  rooting.  It  must  not  be  too 
ripe,  but  just  ripe  enough  to  present  some  woody  fibre  to  the  knife  in  making 
the  cutting.  We  make  the  cuttings  with  three  buds.  The  base  of  the  cutting 
is  cut  right  below  the  bottom  bud  and  the  top  is  made  half  an  inch  above  the 
top  bud.  The  leaf  is  left  entire  on  the  upper  bud  but  removed  from  the  two 
lower  ones,  If  this  leaf  decays  in  the  cutting  bed  then  reject  that  cutting 
even  though  it  roots.  The  loss  of  the  leaf  is  an  indication  of  weakness  in  the 
cutting  and  it  will  not  make  a  first  class  plant.  We  place  the  cuttings  in 
water  as  fast  as  made,  for  it  is  important  that  the  cut  may  not  be  allowed  to 
dry  before  setting.  Now  the  bed  in  which  the  cuttings  are  to  be  set  should  be 
ready.  This  is  simply  an  ordinary  cold  frame  in  which  a  bed  of  three  inches 
of  clean  sand  replaces  the  usual  rich  soil.  Standing  in  front  (or  on  the  south 
side)  of  the  frame,  the  propagator  marks  a  deep  cut  in  the  sand  with  a 
straight  edge  across  the  frame.  Beginning  at  the  extreme  left  end  of  the 
frame  as  he  fronts  it,  he  sets  the  cuttings  up  to  the  top  leaf  in  the  sand,  and 
turns  all  the  leaves  to  the  left  so  that  they  will  be  out  of  the  way  of  the  next 
row.  The  cuttings  are  set  about  an  inch  apart  and  the  rows  are  marked  three 
inches  apart,  and  the  sand  packed  closely  to  each  row  as  set.  Turning  the 
leaves  all  to  the  left,  they  will,  as  the  setting  proceeds,  nearly  entirely  cover 
the  surface  of  the  sand.  As  fast  as  a  sash  is  filled  it  is  well  watered  with  a 
fine  rose  to  settle  the  sand  about  the  cuttings.  The  glass  is  heavily  white- 
washed or  painted  for  shade,  and  is  propped  up  an  inch  or  more  at  the  back 
to  allow  a  circulation  of  air.  Wooden  labels  are  used  to  indicate  the  names  of 
the  varieties  in  the  rows  and  parts  of  rows  to  prevent  mixing.  After  the  cut- 
tings are  set,  the  bed  will  need  watering  daily  to  keep  the  sand  wet,  and  if 
all  goes  right  they  should  be  forming  roots  in  about  four  weeks.  As  soon 
as  they  have  made  roots  the  fourth  of  an  inch  long  they  must  be  potted  into 
pots  two  and  a  half  inches  in  diameter,  using  a  compost  made  during  the  sum- 
mer of  rotted  grass  sods  and  old  manure.  This  should  be  composed  of  sods 
from  a  clay  loam  and  not  a  sandy  soil,  for  the  rose  prefers  a  firm  soil.  Potting 
must  be  done  firmly  and  the  plants  are  then  packed  into  another  frame,  prefer- 
ably on  a  bed  of  sifted  coal  ashes  to  prevent  the  earth  worms  from  getting 
into  the  bottom  of  the  pots.  They  are  well  watered,  and  the  shaded  sashes 
placed  over  them ;  they  must  never  be  allowd  to  suffer  for  water.  By  the  time 
cold  weather  comes  these  plajits  will  have  made  some  growth  and  have  become 
well  established  in  their  pots.  They  are  now  salable  as  two  and  a  half  inch 
pot  plants,  or  they  can  be  carried  over  winter  in  the  frames  and  planted  in  the 


354 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

field  in  the  spring  to  grow  during  the  summer  for  shipment  to  customers  in 
the  fall,  who  want  them  to  pot  for  the  spring  retail  trade.  Of  course  the 
shading  must  be  removed  from  the  glass  as  the  plants  get  established  and  the 
weather  gets  colder,  and  regular  attention  must  be  given  during  the  winter 
to  watering  and  airing  the  frames.  As  the  weather  gets  cold,  the  pots  should 
be  packed  all  over  with  cotton  seed  hulls,  to  prevent  the  freezing  of  the  pots 
and  soil,  but  they  should  be  kept  as  cool  as  possible  for  frost  to  be  excluded, 
as  it  is  not  desirable  that  they  should  get  into  active  growth  during  the  winter. 
One  sash  three  by  six  feet  will  winter  three  hundred  plants,  which  will  be 
worth,  dug  from  the  field  the  following  fall,  from  forty  to  one  hundred  dollars 
per  thousand  at  wholesale,  according  to  the  rarity  of  the  varieties.  Fifteen 
thousand  plants  can  be  set  on  an  acre,  and  it  will  be  seen  that  this  is  another 
profitable  use  for  the  sashes  and  frames.  Of  course  anyone  going  into  the 
propagation  of  roses  for  the  trade  will  have  his  connections  North  who  will 
handle  his  stock,  and  when  the  whole  work  can  be  done  on  contract  for  the 
large  houses  who  distribute  the  stock,  it  can  be  seen  that  an  important  in- 
dustry can  easily  grow  up  in  this  way.  But,  as  we  have  said,  when  one  goes 
into  business  on  a  large  scale  he  should  be  provided  with  an  outfit  of  propagat- 
ing houses,  which,  during  the  winter,  can  be  used  for  other  purposes,  as  we 
will  suggest. 

The  only  artificial  fertilizer  the  rose  grower  needs  to  use  in  his  potting 
compost  is  raw  bone  dust,  and  in  the  field  the  plants  will  take  as  much  manure 
as  a  com  field,  and  will  need  as  much  more  cultivation  if  the  best  plants  are 
desired. 

For  the  propagation  of  the  hardy  hybrid  roses  the  Southern  grower  needs 
no  glass.  The  cuttings  should  not  be  made  till  the  wood  is  perfectly  ripe  and 
the  leaves  have  fallen  or  will  rub  off  easily.  We  then  make,  in  November, 
cuttings  of  the  summer's  growth  of  about  four  or  five  eyes  or  buds,  cutting 
the  lower  end  off  right  under  a  bud  and  the  upper  end  half  an  inch  above  one. 
Select  a  piece  of  well  sheltered,  fertile  loam  soil,  and  insert  the  cuttings  up 
to  the  upper  bud,  six  inches  apart  in  rows  two  and  a  half  feet  apart,  and 
mulch  the  rows  with  pine  straw  or  cotton  seed  hulls  to  prevent  the  soil  from 
freezing.  If  the  wood  is  well  ripened  most  of  the  varieties  will  root  and  be 
ready  to  grow  in  the  spring,  though  some  varieties  root  more  certainly  than 
others.  The  time  for  setting  the  cuttings  is  in  November,  but  we  have  fre- 
quently set  them  later ;  and  on  one  occasion  cuttings  of  the  new  rose,  Margaret 
Dixon,  set  in  February,  made  plants  over  six  feet  high  the  same  summer. 
These  roses  are,  of  course,  allowed  to  grow  during  the  summer  where  the  cut- 
tings are  set,  and  are  salable  in  the  fall  just  as  the  tea  roses  are.  Some  dealers 
in  the  North  have  gotten  prejudiced  against  the  cutttings  rooted  in  the  open 


Gardening  Under  Glass — 355 

ground  in  the  South  because  the  plants  sent  them  are  long-shanked  and  look 
like  roses  that  were  budded  too  high.  This  is  caused  by  making  the  cuttings 
too  long  and  leaving  a  part  above  the  ground.  If  the  cuttings  are  of  mod- 
erate length  and  are  inserted  their  whole  length  in  the  earth,  the  plants  will 
branch  from  the  ground  in  a  symmetrical  way.  Others  have  objected  that  the 
plants  that  have  been  sent  North  from  the  coast  country  of  South  Georgia 
have  long,  ropy  roots  and  fail  on  being  potted.  This  arises  from  growing 
the  plants  in  a  sandy  soil  and  too  far  South,  where  the  wood  does  not  get  so 
well  ripened  by  the  coming  of  frost.  Roses  need  a  clay  loam  in  which  to  make 
the  most  compact  root  growth  suitable  for  potting  when  sent  North.  It  will 
be  but  a  short  time  when  all  the  larger  dealers  North  will  have  their  roses 
grown  in  the  South,  on  contract,  just  as  they  now  have  tuberoses  and  other 
bulbs  grown  there.  Propagation  of  roses  on  a  large  scale  necessarily  involves 
a  considerable  investment  in  glass  and  pots  and  land,  for  nothing  but  the  best 
soil  is  fit  for  the  purpose.  A  propagating  house  100  feet  long  and  twenty 
feet  wide  will  require  1,000  sashes  on  the  frames.  The  house  will  cost  $2,000 
and  the  frames  $1,500,  three  acres  of  stock  plants  will  be  needed  for  cuttings, 
and  twenty  acres  of  land  for  the  summer  planting.  Pots  and  freight  will  cost 
about  $1,000,  and  such  an  outfit  in  the  hands  of  a  skilled  man  with  plenty  of 
labor  at  hand,  should  turn  out  250,000  plants  annually.  The  tea  roses  will 
go  into  the  field  in  March,  and  during  the  winter  the  propagating  house  can 
be  used  for  growing  other  plants,  and  in  spring  for  starting  tomato  and  egg 
plants,  which,  in  March  can  be  transferred  to  the  frames  after  the  roses  have 
gone  out,  and,  and  an  immense  number  of  plants  be  had  for  sale  to  planters, 
or  planted  in  one^s  own  land  for  the  growth  of  the  fruit.  Or  if  the  business 
grows  as  it  should  the  house  can  be  partly  planted  with  stock  plants  of  roses 
and  the  propagation  kept  up  during  the  winter  from  wood  grown  inside. 
This  will  involve  the  use  of  more  greenhouses  for  the  establishing  of  the 
winter  plants. 

PROPAGATING  HARDY  ROSES  IN  FRAMES  NORTH. 

The  hybrid  roses  that  are  so  easily  propagated  from  cuttings  in  the  open 
air  in  the  South,  are  equally  easy  to  propagate  in  colder  latitudes  by  the  use 
of  the  simple  cold  frame.  In  this  case  the  cuttings  should  be  made  of  about 
four  eyes  and  set  in  three-inch  pots,  in  a  good  compost  of  sods  and  manure 
suitable  for  the  potting  of  roses.  These  pots  are  then  plunged  over  their 
rims,  in  a  bed  of  sifted  coal  ashes  in  the  frames,  and  careful  attention  paid  to 
watering,  airing  and  protection  during  the  winter.  They  will  have  formed 
roots  by  the  time  planting  time  comes  in  the  spring,  and  can  then  be  trans- 
ferred to  the  open  ground  in  nursery  rows  for  the  summer. 


356 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

Wherever  the  frames  are  built  closely  and  protected  by  banking,  and  are 
covered  in  cold  weather  by  mats  or  shutters,  violets  can  be  grown  and  bloomed 
as  freely  as  in  greenhouses.  In  fact,  from  Virginia  southward  the  violets 
are  better  off  in  the  frames  than  in  any  greenhouse. 

Our  lady  amateurs  often  go  to  a  great  deal  of  trouble  in  rooting  slips 
of  their  favorite  geraniums.  If  they  would  take  a  simple  frame  and  a  sash  in 
the  early  fall  and  place  in  it  a  bed  of  clean  sand,  and  insert  all  the  cuttings 
they  want  in  this,  give  one  good  soaking  and  then  put  on  a  shaded  sash  slight- 
ly tilted  at  the  back,  they  need  not  give  the  geraniums  any  further  attention 
till  rooted,  as  they  will  be  in  three  or  four  weeks,  when  they  can  be  transferred 
to  small  pots. 

We  have  thus,  in  detail,  tried  to  show  the  capabilities  of  a  simple  frame 
and  hotbed  sash,  so  that  the  Southern  reader  especially  can  realize  the  possi- 
bilities of  intensive  horticulture  with  very  simple  appliances.  The  conditions 
are  constant  care  and  attention,  and  a  liberal  expenditure  for  manures  and 
fertilizers,  for  intensive  gardening  means  a  soil  of  exuberant  fertility,  such  as 
we  seldom  see  in  the  open  garden ;  but  we  have  by  no  means  exhausted  the  re- 
sources of  the  cold  frame  and  sash. 

ASPARAGUS  IN  COLD  FRAMES. 

There  is,  as  we  have  seen  before,  no  crop  grown  by  the  market  gardener 
which  has  been  so  steadily  and  uniformly  profitable,  North  and  South,  as  the 
asparagus  crop  when  properly  grown  and  handled,  in  soil  made  as  fertile 
as  possible.  Some  gardeners  have  made  the  forcing  of  asparagus  in  hotbeds 
and  houses  a  profitable  matter,  but  this  involves  the  loss  of  the  forced  roots, 
while  in  cold  frame  culture  the  bed  maintains  its  productiveness  for  years. 
It  will  not,  however,  be  advisable  to  plant  a  bed  for  immediate  use  of  the 
sashes.  In  preparation  for  frames  the  beds  should  be  planted  so  that  they  will 
be  included  in  a  six-foot  frame.  The  soil  should  be  trenched  to  a  depth  of 
twenty  inches  and  filled  with  old,  rotted  manure,  and  a  good  addition  should 
be  made  as  a  top  dressing  after  the  roots  are  set.  Set  the  roots  12x12  inches 
apart  and  more  shallowly  than  in  the  general  open  ground  culture.  Keep 
the  beds  perfectly  clean  and  in  the  fall  add  a  dressing  of  kainit  at  rate  of  one- 
fourth  of  a  pound  to  each  18  square  feet,  the  size  of  a  sash.  In  the  spring 
give  an  equally  heavy  dressing  of  cotton  seed  meal  (or  tankage),  and  again 
keep  the  beds  well  worked.  The  following  fall  build  the  frames.  Then, 
during  the  winter,  when  an  early  crop  of  lettuce  has  been  sold  from  other 
frames,  run  the  sashes  on  the  asparagus  frames  and  keep  the  glass  close  till 
the  soil  is  well  warmed.     Then,  as  the  shoots  begin  to  appear,  give  air  as 


Gardening  Under  Glass — 357 

needed,  and  protect  carefully  with  mats  in  cold  nights,  cutting  the  asparagus 
as  fast  as  the  shoots  attain  the  proper  size  until  shoots  appear  on  the  outdoor 
crop,  when  the  cutting  should  be  stopped  to  give  the  frame-roots  a  chance  to 
fully  develop.  The  following  season  they  can  be  cut  longer,  and  if  the  ma- 
nuring and  fertilization  is  kept  up  the  beds  will  continue  productive  for  many 
years.  In  the  colder  sections  North  the  same  practice  can  be  pursued  with 
heated  houses  or  frames.  At  Cornell  University  Prof.  Bailey  describes  a 
house  used  for  the  forcing  of  asparagus,  which  is  simply  made  of  canvas 
stretched  over  an  iron  frame  which  forms  the  heating  pipes.  With  the  simple 
frame  and  sash  the  Southern  gardener  can  get  the  crop  from  the  frames 
during  February,  when  the  price  is  always  fine,  and  as  a  second  use  of  the 
sash  for  the  winter  it  may  prove  more  profitable  than  a  second  crop  of  lettuce. 

STRAWBERRIES  IN  FRAMES. 

It  is  a  comparatively  easy  matter,  from  Central  North  Carolina  to  South- 
ern Georgia,  to  forward  the  strawberry  crop  with  the  use  of  sashes  so  that  the 
fruit  will  compete  with  that  from  Florida  in  February  and  early  March. 
In  preparation  for  the  crop  we  must  begin  in  the  early  summer  of  the  previous 
year.  Using  an  early  variety  of  strawberry,  we  take  the  runners  as  soon  as 
they  show  white  roots  an  inch  long  and  put  them  in  three-inch  pots,  using  the 
same  rich  compost  of  rotted  sods  and  manure  we  would  use  for  the  roses  or 
other  plants  in  pots.  They  are  then  set,  close  together,  in  a  frame  on  a  bed 
of  coal  ashes,  are  shaded  by  lath  screens  and  kept  carefully  watered  till  the 
roots  have  gotten  complete  possession  of  the  pots.  They  are  then  set  in  the 
frames  in  August,  ten  inches  apart  each  way.  The  soil  in  the  frame  is  made 
as  deep  and  rich  as  we  make  it  for  the  lettuce  crop,  and  the  plants  are  kept 
clean  and  not  allowed  to  make  any  runners.  By  the  time  cold  weather  arrives 
they  will  be  big  and  strong  and  will  have  made  fine  fruiting  crowns.  They 
must  now  be  allowed  to  take  their  winter  rest,  for  it  will  not  do  to  excite  them 
into  continued  growth  and  bloom.  About  Christmas  the  sashes  are  placed 
over  them,  the  old  leaves  cleaned  away,  and  a  light  dressing  of  nitrate  of  soda 
is  added  around  them;  about  four  ounces  to  a  sash.  Close  attention  must 
now  be  paid  to  watering  so  that  the  plants  shall  never  suffer  from  drought, 
and  to  airing  on  all  occasions  when  the  sun  shines  brightly,  and  covering  to 
exclude  frost  on  cold  nights.  As  the  plants  develop  fresh  leaves  and  begin 
to  bloom,  but  not  before,  it  is  well  to  add  a  mulch  of  chopped  straw  around 
them  for  the  fruit  to  rest  upon  and  be  kept  clean.  The  crop  should  come  on 
in  late  February  and  early  March.  For  frame  culture,  as  for  regular  forcing 
in  greenhouses,  we  would  grow  fresh  plants  annually.     If  well  grown  thus,  in 


358 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

the  Upper  South,  the  crop  should  be  a  very  profitable  one,  since  the  fruit  can 
be  put  into  the  market  of  better  quality  and  in  better  condition  than  that  from 
the  far  South.  In  fact,  there  are  times  in  winter  when  even  the  Florida 
grower  may  wish  that  his  plants  were  in  frames. 

importance  of  water  in  intensive  gardening. 

When  we  come  to  artificial  culture  with  the  aid  of  glass,  water  becomes  a 
matter  of  great  importance,  for  we  cannot  at  all  times,  even  in  winter  in  the 
sunny  South,  depend  on  the  rainfall ;  and  the  rainfall,  if  plentiful,  may  come 
in  such  cold  weather  that  we  cannot  afford  to  use  it  in  our  frames.  Hence 
when  we  begin  winter  gardening  under  glass  a  full  supply  of  water  under 
pressure  is  of  the  first  importance.  Perhaps  the  cheapest  mode  of  supplying 
this  need  is  by  the  use  of  a  windmill  and  elevated  tank,  connected  with  piping 
through  the  framing  ground,  so  that  a  hose  can  be  attached  at  intervals  and 
the  watering  speedily  and  effectively  done.  The  success  of  the  crop  may  de- 
pend on  our  ability  to  irrigate  the  frames  thoroughly,  and  with  an  extensive 
series  of  frames  the  loss  by  reason  of  lack  of  water  might  be  enough  to  have 
fully  provided  the  needed  supply.  Windmills  are  more  effective  in  the  flat 
country  near  the  sea  coast,  among  the  hills  they  are  at  times  unsatisfactory ; 
in  such  case  a  hot  air  pumping  engine  is  the  best  thing  we  have  tried  for 
pumping  purposes.  In  any  large  truck  garden,  whether  there  is  much  or 
little  glass,  the  ability  to  give  a  full  irrigation  in  the  open  ground  will  often 
make  all  the  difference  between  great  profit  and  a  dead  failure,  so  that  the  first 
essential  in  a  profitable  market  garden  is  a  water  supply  under  pressure.  The 
large  amounts  of  commercial  fertilizers  used  in  market  gardening  require  a 
regular  supply  of  moisture,  in  order  that  the  plant  food  may  be  dissolved  and 
the  crops  get  the  benefit  of  it,  and  any  long  interval  of  drought  will  cause 
damage  through  the  caustic  nature  of  some  of  the  materials  used. 

Having  a  water  supply  under  pressure  does  not  mean  that  the  gardener 
shall  continually  drag  long  hose  around  everywhere,  for  any  man  who  is  at  all 
handy  with  a  pipe- wrench  can  arrange  a  pipe  system  for  temporary  use  in 
summer  that  will  furnish  points  of  attachment  for  short  pieces  of  hose,  which 
can  be  taken  up  and  stored  in  cold  weather.  One  of  the  most  successful 
celery  growers  we  ever  knew,  grew  his  crop  on  high  land  of  a  strong  clayey 
nature;  but  he  had  a  water  tank  and  laid  temporary  pipe  lines  all  through 
his  celery  plantation,  so  that  a  few  feet  of  hose  would  enable  him  to  soak  every 
part  of  it  with  the  minimum  amount  of  water.  Every  large  frame-yard 
should  have  a  series  of  hydrants  along  between  the  frames,  to  which  hose  and 
sprinkler  can  be  attached  and  the  watering  rapidly  and  easily  done.     No  one, 


Gardening  Under  Glass — 359 

particularly  in  the  sunny  South,  should  ever  attempt  frame  culture  of  any 
plants  on  a  large  scale  without  contriving  for  the  water  supply  under  a  good 
pressure ;  and  if  this  is  necessary  in  frame  culture  it  is  still  more  needed  when 
we  come  to  forcing  crops  in  the  heated  greenhouse,  and  the  ma- 
nure heated  hot-bed. 

HOTBEDS. 

The  only  difference  in  structure  between  the  cold  frame  and  the  hotbed 
in  that  the  latter  has  an  excavation  made  under  it,  for  packing  fresh  heating 
manure  in,  to  get  up  and  maintain  an  artificial  heat.  In  the  vicinity  of  the 
larger  cities  hotbeds  are  still  largely  used  for  the  Winter  growing  of  lettuce 
and  other  crops  that  are  grown  in  frames  in  the  South.  There  the  growers 
can  depend  on  regular  and  abundant  supplies  of  fresh  horse  manure,  and 
where  labor  is  abundant  the  hotbed  may  be  made  a  profitable  method  for  the 
production  of  these  crops  and  the  forwarding  of  plants  for  the  open  ground. 
But  there  are  few  gardeners  so  situated,  and  even  where  the  manure  can  be 
had,  the  hotbed  is  not  the  cheapest  structure  in  the  long  run  for  the  produc- 
tion of  crops  that  require  heat  for  any  length  of  time,  for  it  is  always  a  dimin- 
ishing heat,  and  the  labor  of  attending  to  the  beds  is  far  greater  than  in  prop- 
erly arranged  and  heated  greenhouses. 

In  some  places  the  gardeners  have  adopted  fire-heated  beds,  to  save  the 
expense  and  labor  of  manure  handling  and  to  maintain  a  more  uniform  heat. 
These  beds  are  constructed  with  an  excavation  below  as  for  the  manure,  but 
in  place  of  the  manure  a  brick  flue  is  built  through  the  length  of  the  pit,  and 
above  it  a  floor  is  made  on  which  the  soil  is  placed.  A  furnace  at  one  end 
furnishes  the  heat,  and  the  hot  air  chamber  below  makes  it  uniform  over  the 
bed.  This  is  a  poor  and  inconvenient  imitation  of  a  greenhouse,  and  the 
!^ame  sashes  that  are  used  on  the  frame  could  be  put  into  the  shape  of  a  double- 
span  house  that  would  admit  of  head  room  for  getting  through  the  centre, 
and  beds  or  benches  on  each  side  over  the  flue ;  and  while  there  would  be  less 
bed-space  by  reason  of  the  walk,  the  ease  of  management  and  the  fact  that 
one  can  work  there  in  all  weathers  gives  the  narrow  greenhouse  a  great  ad- 
vantage over  the  heated  frame.  It  is  not  the  intention  of  this  work  to  enter 
into  the  general  construction  of  greenhouses  for  all  purposes,  but  to  show  that 
in  the  beginning  of  forcing,  a  cheap  structure  can  be  made  that  will  answer 
many  purposes ;  and  which,  as  skill  in  the  management  of  plants  under  arti- 
ficial conditions  increases,  more  elaborate  structures  will  take  their  place. 
We  have  treated  at  large  on  the  possibilities,  especially  in  the  South,  of  a 
simple  sash  on  a  frame,  and  we  will  now  treat  of  real  winter  forcing. 


360 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 


THE  FORCING  HOUSE. 


The  character  of  the  house  needed  will  depend  largely  on  the  crop  to  be 
forced.  Such  dwarf  growing  crops  as  radishes,  snap  beans  and  asparagus 
need  low  and  compact  houses,  while  crops  like  tomatoes  and  cucumbers  require 
more  head  room  in  the  house.  Long,  narrow  structures,  such  as  can  be  made 
with  the  ordinary  hotbed  sashes,  with  side  walls  of  plank  nailed  to  posts  four 
feet  high  and  wooden  gutters,  to  which  each  alternate  pair  of  sashes  are 
fastened  to  form  rafters  to  the  ridge  pole,  and  the  others  hinged  at  the 
bottom  to  the  gutter  and  fastened  by  iron  straps  punched  with  holes  so  that 
they  can  be  elevated  for  ventilation,  and  one  walk  through  the  centre  just 
giving  room  under  the  ridge  for  head  room  and  two  sidfe  benches,  can  be  made 
cheaply,  and  will  make  admirable  houses  for  radishes  or  beans  on  the  side 
benches.  The  heating,  if  funds  are  not  plentiful,  can  be  done  with  brick  fur- 
naces set  in  a  pit  at  the  end  of  the  house,  and  a  brick  flue  taken  around  under 
the  side  benches  to  a  chimney  at  the  furnace  end.  If  the  house  is  much  over 
fifty  feet  long  there  had  better  be  a  furnace  at  each  end  running  directly  to  a 
chimney  at  the  other,  for  a  flue  over  100  feet  long  is  of  little  value.  The 
best,  and,  in  the  long  run  most  economical,  mode  for  heating,  is  by  hot  water 
boiler  and  pipes,  so  as  to  give  a  uniform  heat  through  all  the  house.  The  tyro 
at  forcing  will  generally  make  the  mistake  of  running  too  much  heat,  and  the 
heat  is  harder  even  for  an  experienced  man  to  regulate  in  a  house  that  de- 
pends on  a  furnace  and  flue  than  in  a  house  heated  by  hot  water.  Where 
means  will  afford  it  will  always  be  better  to  have  houses  properly  constructed 
by  an  experienced  greenhouse  builder  and  designed  for  the  crop  for  which 
they  are  to  be  used. 

For  the  winter  forcing  of  tomatoes,  which  is  one  of  the  chief  crops 
grown  under  artificial  conditions,  a  very  different  house  should  be  made. 
For  this  purpose  we  prefer  a  full-span  roofed  house  twenty  feet  wide,  and 
ten  feet  high  to  the  ridge  in  the  centre.  This  will  give  a  bench  on  each  side 
near  .the  glass,  two  walks  and  a  bed  in  the  centre  or  rather  a  fioor  space  on 
which  the  pots  or  boxes  in  which  the  plants  forced  are  grown.  The  side 
benches  can  be  used  for  the  forcing  of  snap  beans,  which  require  about  the 
same  heat  as  tomatoes.  In  the  South  a  house  for  winter  radishes  will  be 
better  merely  with  a  flue,  since  it  will  only  be  during  cold  snaps  that  any 
fire  heat  will  be  needed.  In  fact,  if  much  is  given  there  will  be  more  leaves 
than  radishes,  and  the  low  house  will  be  better  for  them  than  the  higher  one, 
as  they  need  to  be  kept  close  to  the  glass.  The  span-roof  house  should  run 
north  and  south  in  length,  so  that  both  the  morning  and  afternoon  sun  can 
be  had.     A  small  sash-house,  with  a  flue,  is  essential  to  any  market  garden 


Gardening  Under  Glass — 361 

whether  winter  forcing  is  practiced  or  not,  for  it  is  greatly  better  than  a  hot- 
bed for  the  starting  of  the  plants,  that  are  to  be  transferred  later  to  the  cold 
frames  and  the  open  ground.  Merely  for  the  purpose  of  starting  plants  a 
very  small  house  will  be  sufficient  for  a  large  number  of  sashes  or  cold 
frames,  since  the  young  seedlings  can  be  thickly  grown  at  first,  if  given  plenty 
of  room  in  the  frames.  A  house  fifty  feet  long  by  ten  feet  wide  will  not  only 
give  room  for  the  sowing  of  seed,  but  for  the  first  transplanting  of  a  large 
crop  of  tomato  and  egg  plants  and  peppers,  and  such  a  cheap  structure  can  be 
afforded  in  any  garden  of  any  pretensions  to  size.  If  one  goes  into  regular 
winter  forcing  it  involves  capital  and  experience,  and  if  the  gardener  has 
not  had  experience  in  the  work  he  had  better  employ  someone  who  has,  until 
he  gains  the  needed  experience,  for  no  greenhorn  will  at  first  make  a  success 
of  winter  forcing. 


CHAPTER  XLIX. 
SOME  GENERAL  CONCLUSIONS. 

1.  Commercial  fertilizers  are  simply  plant  food,  in  a  concentrated  form 
and  more  or  less  immediately  soluble  condition,  and  are  not  stimulants  any 
more  than  stable  manure  is  a  stimulant. 

2.  Lime  and  land  plaster  may  be  regarded  as  stimulants  from  the  fact 
that,  although  plant  food  to  some  extent,  they  have  a  further  office  as  reagents 
in  bringing  about  changes  in  matter  already  in  the  soil,  and  bringing  into 
use  matters  otherwise  unavailable  to  plants.  Hence  if  used  with  the  idea  that 
they  are  manures  and  will  make  the  soil  rich,  the  result  will  finally  be  to  ex- 
haust the  soil  of  some  matters  essential  to  plant  life,  while  if  their  office  is 
properly  understood  they  are  the  most  efficient  agents  in  the  maintenance  of 
the  fertility  and  productiveness  of  the  soil. 

3.  While  they  are  not  to  be  regarded  as  mere  stimulants,  commercial 
fertilizers,  used  as  a  constant  reliance  for  the  getting  of  the  same  crop  from 
the  same  soil  year  after  year,  will  finally  result  in  a  condition  of  the  soil  in 
which  it  will  no  longer  respond  to  the  application  of  the  fertilizers  as  it  once 
did,  largely  because  of  the  mechanical  condition  of  the  soil  and  the  using  up 
of  the  humus ;  one  of  the  most  efficient  agents  in  making  the  fertilizers  avail- 
able to  plants. 

4.  While  the  application  of  a  fertilizer  mixture  to  every  crop  planted 
or  sown  may  show  an  increase  in  the  crop,  such  a  course  is  seldom  profitable, 
and  the  indirect  accumulation  of  fertility  through  the  agency  of  the  legumes, 
aided  by  commercial  fertilizers,  will  generally  give  more  profitable  results 
than  the  application  of  fertilizers  direct  to  the  sale  crop.  In  other  words, 
the  place  to  use  the-  f ertilzer  for  our  ordinary  farm  crops  is  in  the  promotion 
of  the  growth  of  the  legumes  that  make  food  for  animals  and  food  for  the 
soil  at  the  same  time. 

5.  One  crop  farming,  or,  rather,  planting  the  same  soil  year  after  year 
with  the  same  crop,  and  applying  commercial  fertilizer  for  the  purpose  of 
getting  a  crop,  is  merely  gambling  on  the  chances,  and  like  every  other  kind  of 
gambling  results  in  final  disaster  to  the  gambler. 

6.  The  soils  of  the  South  have  lost  fertility  faster  through  the  leaving 

(362) 


Some  General  Conclusions — 363 

of  the  land  bare  of  vegetation  in  winter  than  through  the  cropping  of  cotton 
in  the  suninior.  While  a  green  cover  crop  is  important  in  any  part  of  the 
country,  as  a  trap  for  the  nitrates  in  winter,  it  is  of  far  greater  importance 
in  the  South  where  there  is  little  or  no  snow  and  where  there  is  more  rain 
in  winter  than  hard  freezing.  But  the  same  practice  of  one  cropping  will 
lead  to  soil  exhaustion  and  "old  fields"  as  surely  in  che  wheat  fields  of  the 
Northwest,  though  the  fertility  of  the  soil  may  stand  it  longer;  but  when  once 
the  soil  in  that  climate  is  depleted  it  will  be  harder  to  restore  it  than  in  the 
climate  of  the  South. 

7.  The  Southern  uplands  are  naturally  more  deficient  in  humus  than 
those  of  the  North.  In  the  Northern  forests  the  leaves  fall  early  and  the 
snow  packs  them  down  where  they  fall,  so  that  the  hills  gather  humus.  In 
the  Southern  uplands,  the  leaves  fall  more  gradually  in  the  autumn,  and  the 
winds  blow  the  dry  leaves  off  into  the  low  grounds  and  hollows,  accumulating 
fertile  hollows  and  bottoms,  while  little  humus  accumulates  on  the  hills  from 
the  lack  of  snow  to  hold  the  leaves  there.  Hence  in  the  improvement  of  the 
Southern  hills,  the  stocking  of  the  soil  with  vegetable  decay  to  remedy  this 
defect  is  the  most  important  thing. 

8.  The  blood  red  clay  of  the  Southern  Piedmont  plateau  only  needs 
proper  plowing  and  cultivation,  and  the  accumulation  of  humus  in  it,  to  make 
it  a  productive  soil,  for,  being  the  result  of  the  decay  of  feldspathic  rocks, 
it  is  well  supplied  with  all  the  mineral  elements  of  plant  food,  and  only  needs 
the  proper  tillage  and  the  accumulation  of  nitrogenous  organic  matter  to 
make  it  a  productive  soil.  On  these  soils  deep  and  thorough  plowing  and 
subsoiling,  and  rapid,  clean  and  shallow  culture,  with  a  good  rotation  of  crops 
in  which  the  legumes  are  frequently  brought  on  the  land  and  the  manure 
made  from  their  feeding  is  used  as  an  additional  source  of  humus  and 
plant  food,  will  give  better  results  without  an  ounce  of  commercial  fertilizer 
than  they  will  with  the  annual  scratching  and  application  of  costly  fertilizers. 

9.  While  some  of  our  flat  and  low  lying  soils  abounding  in  humus  may 
give  profitable  crops  through  the  heavy  application  of  fertilizers  year  after 
year,  the  same  course  on  the  upland  soils  will  not  result  in  profit  either  to  the 
land  or  the  owner. 

10.  Hence  to  make  the  liberal  use  of  commercial  fertilizers  profitable  a 
well  adjusted  system  of  crop  rotation  is  essential.  The  experiments  at  the  Ohio 
Station  through  a  series  of  years  gave  the  following  results,  as  stated  in  their 
bulletin:  "At  the  prices  at  which  mixed  fertilizers  are  sold  in  Ohio  the  at- 
tempt to  furnish  all  the  nitrogen,  as  well  as  all  the  phosphoric  acid  and  pot- 
ash required  to  produce  increase  in  cereal  crops  grown  in  continuous  culture, 
has  invariably  resulted  in  pecuniary  loss,  although  very  large  increase  of  crop 


364^— Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

has  been  thus  produced.  The  rotation  of  cereals  with  nitrogen-gathering 
crops,  therefore,  has  been  shown  to  be  absolutely  essential  to  the  profitable 
use  of  commercial  fertilizers  in  any  form."  This  is  in  perfect  accord  with 
all  of  our  experience,  for  we  have  found  that  with  the  exception  of  certain 
high  priced  crops,  like  those  of  the  market  garden  and  tobacco,  it  has  never 
been  as  profitable  to  use  a  complete  fertilizer  for  the  direct  production  of  the 
crop  as  through  the  accumulation  of  nitrogen  by  means  of  legumes. 

11.  In  the  use  of  the  legumxcs  as  nitrogen  collectors,  a  short  rotation  is 
essential,  since  nitrogen,  when  it  has  come  into  the  readily  available  form 
of  a  nitrate,  is  rapidly  lost  to  the  soil.  The  same  Ohio  experiments  confirm 
this,  for  they  say:  "Thus  far  in  these  experiments  the  surplus  nitrogen  ac- 
cumulated by  a  crop  of  clover,  the  roots  only  being  left  in  the  ground,  has  not 
been  more  than  sufficient  to  satisfy  the  demands  of  the  one  crop  immediately 
following  the  clover. 

12.  Hence  in  wheat  growing  in  the  northern  section  of  the  winter  wheat 
belt  a  rotation  of  three  or  four  years  will  be  found  the  most  profitable.  We 
would  suggest  the  following:  Wheat,  clover  cut  for  hay  and  fallowed  for 
wheat  again.  Clover  cut  for  hay,  then  pastured  and  manured  for  the  corn 
crop  the  following  year  and  repeat,  a  four  year  rotation  in  which  one  field  of 
wheat  following  corn  has  the  benefit  of  the  manure  applied  to  the  corn  and 
another  the  clover  lay  and  the  corn  also  has  the  clover  and  manure.  In  the 
southern  part  of  the  Middle  States  either  adopt  a  three  year  rotation  of  corn, 
wheat  and  clover,  or,  if  the  oat  crop  is  an  important  one,  make  a  rotation  of 
corn  on  clover  sod  manured,  vetch  among  the  corn  for  a  winter  cover,  oats  on 
the  plowed  down  vetch,  cow  peas  on  the  oat  stubble  at  once  after  harvest  and 
cut  for  hay  and  land  disced  for  wheat  and  sown  to  clover.  In  the  Upper 
South  where  the  land  is  adapted  to  wheat  make  the  following.  Corn  well 
manured  with  home-made  manure,  winter  oats  or  wheat  after  the  corn,  cow 
peas  after  harvest  cut  for  hay  and  land  sown  at  once  in  crimson  clover  or 
vetch,  cotton  on  the  plowed  down  legumes  aided  by  the  meal  from  the  previous 
crop.  In  all  these  rotations  we  would  use  commercial  fertilizers  only  on  the 
legumes,  and  on  these  in  a  very  liberal  manner  only  phosphoric  acid  and 
potash.  This  liberal  use  of  the  mineral  elements  of  plant  food  will  result 
in  a  larger  growth  of  forage  for  cattle  feeding,  and  a  larger  amount  of  nitro- 
gen accumulation.  The  increase  in  forage  will  mean  an  increase  of  manurial 
accumulations  in  the  stables  and  barnyard,  and  a  growing  independence  of  the 
fertilizer  mixer,  the  building  up  of  the  fertility  and  productiveness  of  the 
land  and  increased  profit  to  the  farmer. 

13.  Barnyard  and  stable  manure  made  by  feeding  animals  on  which  a 
profit  has  been  secured,  is  a  far  cheaper  source  of  fertility  than  commercial 


Some  General  Conclusions — 365 

fertilizers.  Quoting  again  from  the  Ohio  bulletin  we  find,  "The  increase  of 
crop  per  pound  of  fertilizing  constituents  applied  has  generally  been  smaller 
when  barnyard  manure  was  used  as  the  carrier  of  fertility,  than  where  chem- 
ical carriers  were  used ;  but  the  lower  cost  of  the  barnyard  manure  has  made 
it  possible  to  use  this  material  with  profit  when  the  use  of  commercial  fertil- 
izers resulted  in  loss.  A  marked  superiority  is  indicated  from  manure  which 
has  been  kept  under  cover  until  required  for  use,  over  that  which  has  been  ex- 
posed, even  but  for  a  short  time,  in  an  open  barnyard,  and  it  seems 
possible  to  materially  increase  the  effectiveness  of  manure  by  treating  it  with 
nitrogen-fixing  materials." 

14.  It  is  always  more  profitable  for  the  farmer  who  uses  the  commercial 
fertilizers  to  buy  the  materials  and  mix  them  at  home  than  to  buy  the  ready 
mixed  articles.  He  is  thus  able  to  vary  the  proportions  of  the  different  con- 
stituents to  suit  the  particular  soil  or  particular  crop  he  is  growing.  The 
Ohio  Station  has  also  investigated  this  matter  in  a  thorough  manner  and 
gives  the  following  conclusions:  "In  the  field  experiments  of  this  Station, 
herein  reported,  factory  mixed  fertilizers,  made  by  firms  of  high  standing, 
produced  no  greater  crops  than  home-mixed  fertilizers  of  equivalent  compo- 
sition. The  cost  of  the  factory-mixed  fertilizers  was  greater  by  50  to  90  per 
cent,  than  that  of  the  equivalent  home  mixtures.  The  verdict  of  these  field 
experiments  is  confirmed  by  the  investigations  of  all  other  agricultural  Ex- 
periment Stations  which  have  reported  upon  the  comparative  value  of  factory- 
mixed  and  home-mixed  fertilizers.  Physical  and  chemical  examination  of  the 
two  forms  of  mixtures  shows  that  the  factory-mixed  fertilizer  is  not  more 
homogeneous  in  its  character  than  that  mixed  by  the  farmer.  Fertilizing 
materials  may  be  as  perfectly  mixed  with  a  shovel  on  a  barn  floor  or  in  a  large 
box  as  by  the  most  elaborate  mixing  machinery.  The  most  thoroughly  mixed 
fertilizer  is  apt  to  separate  in  transportation,  the  finer  particles  settling  to  the 
bottom,  the  coarser  rising  to  the  top ;  hence  the  fertilizer  mixed  at  home  will 
usually  reach  the  field  in  better  condition  than  that  mixed  at  some  distant 
factory.  Those  who  purchase  the  crude  materials  and  mix  for  themselves  are 
less  likely  to  have  materials  of  inferior  quality  imposed  upon  them  than  those 
who  buy  ready  made  fertilizers.  The  possible  annual  saving  in  the  fertilizer 
bills  of  Ohio  farmers  by  cash  purchase  of  materials  and  home  mixing  or  con- 
trol mixing,  reaches  $300,000  to  $400,000." 

If  such  is  the  case  in  Ohio,  where  it  is  but  a  recent  thing  to  use  the  com- 
mercial fertilizers,  what  would  be  the  result  in  the  Cotton  States  where  the 
sales  of  fertilizers  run  up  into  several  millions  of  dollars  annually  while  in 
Ohio  they  little  exceed  half  a  million,  and  a  possible  saving  of  50  to  90  per 
cent,  may  be  made  ? 


366 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

15.  While  experiments  with  fertilizers  will  show  that  the  best  results 
are  obtained  from  a  complete  fertilizer  in  which  there  is  a  due  proportion  of 
nitrogen,  phosphoric  acid  and  potash,  it  by  no  means  follows  that  it  is  to  the 
farmer's  interest  to  use  the  complete  fertilizers  when  by  a  proper  rotation  of 
crops  and  the  use  of  legumes  he  can  get  without  cost  and  often  at  an  actual 
profit,  the  nitrogen  which  makes  the  greater  part  of  the  cost  of  the  complete 
fertilizer.  A  long  experience  in  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  enables  us  to  say, 
without  fear  of  successful  contradiction,  that  for  our  ordinary  farm  crops 
such  as  cotton,  wheat,  corn,  etc.,  there  is  never  any  need  for  the  purchase  of 
a  complete  fertilizer,  if  the  proper  rotation  of  crops  is  followed,  legumes 
grown  and  used  as  forage  and  manure  saved  with  care  and  applied  in  the 
best  place. 

16.  On  crops  of  extra  value,  such  as  those  of  the  market  gardener,  it 
pays  to  use  the  complete  fertilizers  in  a  lavish  and  apparently  wasteful  man- 
ner where  the  early  crops  thus  grown  are  followed  by  legumes  for  feeding  and 
the  accumulation  of  humus.  The  tobacco  grower,  too,  finds  that  it  usually 
pays  to  use  a  complete  fertilizer,  though  we  aYe  not  sure  that  even  here  the  use 
of  the  legumes  may  not  give  as  good  results,  though  further  experiments 
are  needed  to  determine  this. 

17.  Where  it  is  necessary  to  use  artificial  nitrogen  the  most  readily  avail- 
able form  is  nitrate  of  soda.  But  this  should  never  be  used  on  plants  in  a 
dormant  state,  since  it  is  very  readily  leached  from  the  soil  if  not  at  once 
used  by  plants.  The  nitrate  is  valuable  to  start  off  plants  in  the  early  season, 
but  should  always  be  accompanied  by  some  form  of  organic  nitrogen  to  keep 
up  the  effect  after  the  nitrate  has  been  used,  and  to  gradually  produce  nitrates 
in  the  soil,  since  it  has  been  ascertained  that  crops  take  nitrogen  only  after 
it  has  been  reduced  to  a  nitrate  in  the  soil.  The  best  forms  of  organic  nitro- 
gen are  found  in  cotton  seed  meal,  pulverized  fish  scrap,  dried  blood  and  tank- 
age, and  the  poorest  of  all  is  pulverized  leather  scraps. 

18.  Pay  no  attention  to  the  man  who  would  persuade  you  that  phosphoric 
acid  in  a  soluble  form  is  better  from  one  source  than  another.  Phosphoric 
acid  in  animal  bone,  in  phosphatic  rock  and  in  furnace  slag  is  one  and  the 
same  thing,  and  the  only  thing  you  need  bother  about  is  its  solubility.  Phos- 
phate rock  dissolved  in  sulphuric  acid  is  largely  soluble.  Phosphoric  acid  in 
raw  bones  is  all  insoluble,  though  from  the  nature  of  the  material  it  may 
become  soluble  more  quickly  than  that  in  untreated  rock.  A  superphosphate 
made  from  animal  bones  by  dissolving  them  in  sulphuric  acid  is  better  than 
that  from  the  rock  only  because  it  has  a  larger  per  centage  of  phosphoric  acid, 
but  it,  of  course,  costs  more  for  this  reason.  One  per  cent,  of  the  one  is  fully 
as  good  as  one  per  cent,  of  the  other.     Phosphoric  acid  in  Thomas  slag  is 


Some  General  Conclusions — 367 

largely  insoluble,  but  finally  gives  good  results,  as  will  any  other  form  of  in- 
soluble phosphoric  acid  finally  in  the  soil.  For  ready  and  quick  results  the 
dissolved  superphosphate,  or,  as  it  is  called,  acid  phosphate,  should  be  used. 
Some  farmers  have  an  exaggerated  idea  of  the  value  of  raw  bone  as  a  source 
of  phosphoric  acid.  A  good  and  pure  article  of  bone  meal  will  have  about  4 
per  cent,  of  nitrogen  which  will  at  once  show  for  itself,  while  the  phosphoric 
acid  in  the  bone  is  really  very  slow  in  becoming  available.  It  is  usually  the 
most  costly  form  in  which  to  buy  phosphoric  acid. 

19.  Potash  is  found  in  wood  ashes  in  a  very  available  form,  and  the  ashes 
also  usually  contain  a  small  percentage  of  phosphoric  acid  and  a  large  per- 
centage of  lime,  and  where  they  can  be  had  cheap  enough  are  valuable.  But 
where  potash  is  the  thing  sought,  it  can  usually  be  had  cheaper  in  the  form 
of  the  concentrated  muriate.  Near  the  seaboard  it  may,  at  times,  pay  to 
buy  the  crude  potash  salts  in  the  form  of  kainit,  and  kainit  seems  to  have 
a  special  value  to  the  cotton  grower  as  a  preventive  of  blight  in  the  leaves. 
But  where  there  is  a  distance  to  freight  from  the  port  of  entry  it  is  always 
cheaper  to  buy  the  muriate  or  high  grade  sulphate,  since  they  have  50  per 
cent,  or  more  of  potash,  while  the  kainit  has  but  12  per  cent.  For  tobacco, 
and  for  crops  generally  in  which  sugar  content  is  desirable,  the  sulphate  is 
the  best  form. 

20.  While  in  the  hands  of  a  judicious  farmer  the  commercial  fertilizers 
are  of  immense  value,  the  fact  still  remains  that  the  growing  of  forage  and  the 
breeding  of  live  stock,  and  the  saving,  in  the  best  manner,  of  all  manurial 
accumulations  on  the  farm,  lie  at  the  very  foundation  of  all  rational  farm 
improvement  and  the  maintenance  of  the  fertility  of  our  lands  North  or 
South.  So  long  as  states  like  North  and  South  Carolina  raise  three  bales  of 
cotton  for  every  cow  raised  the  farmers  will  continue  to  be  the  agents  of  the 
fertilizer  trusts,  and  no  real  advancement  will  be  made.  Texas  grows  more 
cotton  than  any  other  State,  and  yet  Texas  raises  three  cows  to  every  bale 
of  cotton  grown,  and  Texas  is  thriving  more  than  most  of  her  sister  States  of 
the  cotton  growing  section. 

21.  The  true  office,  then,  of  the  chemical  fertilizers  is  to  aid  in  the 
increase  of  the  productiveness  of  the  land  in  those  crops  that  tend  to  the 
improvement  of  the  soil  and  furnish  food  for  cattle  at  the  same  time.  Used 
in  this  way,  the  chemical  fertilizers  will  gradually  increase  the  amount  of 
home-made  manure  and  render  their  own  use  less  necessary,  until  finally 
none  of  them  need  be  used  except  an  occasional  replenishing  of  the  phosphoric 
acid  and  potash  in  the  soil,  and  in  many  soils  but  one  of  these  may  ever 
become  deficient. 

22.  No  chemist  can  tell  you  what  your  soil  lacks  in  the  way  of  plant  food. 


368 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

Chemical  anah^sis  ma}^  show  an  abundance  of  plant  food  in  it  and  yet  it  may 
be  in  a  very  unproductive  condition  through  lack  of  availability  of  what  it 
contains.  The  only  way  to  find  out  what  you  need  to  buy  and  what  you  need 
not  buy  is  to  question  the  soil  itself  by  a  series  of  experiments,  as  we  have 
tried  to  describe.  The  observant  farmer,  who  wishes  to  avoid  wasting  his 
capital  in  the  purchase  of  what  he  does  not  need  to  buy,  will  make  these  ex- 
periments. Those  who  are  willing  still  to  buy  at  haphazard  will  continue 
their  present  spendthrift  plan. 

23.  It  is  evident,  then,  that  the  farmer  who  is  to  be  successful  in  the 
future,  must  be  the  thinking  and  reading  farmer,  and  a  legume  farmer,  for 
in  legume-growing  and  the  feeding  of  live  stock  will  be  found  the  key  to 
prosperity,  no  matter  whether  you  are  growing  spring  wheat  in  the  North- 
west or  winter  wheat  inthe  Central  States,  or  cotton  in  the  South.  The  basal 
principles  of  soil  improvement  are  the  same  in  any  climate  and  with  any 
money  crop. 

24.  While  the  market  gardener  finds  his  best  profit  in  a  very  lavish 
use  of  commercial  fertilizers  for  his  early  crops,  he  will  find,  no  less  than 
the  general  farmer,  that  success  with  them  depends  largely  on  his  keeping 
up  the  humus  content  of  his  soil,  by  the  same  means  the  farmer  must  adopt, 
the  growing  of  legumes.  The  Southern  market  gardener  has  here  a  great 
advantage  over  those  in  the  North,  from  the  fact  that  his  crops  are  gotten 
off  early  in  the  summer  and  his  longer  season  enables  him  to  grow  the  annual 
legumes  as  a  succession  crop  on  his  heavily  enriched  acres,  and  to  thus  produce 
an  immense  amount  of  stock  feeding  material.  Every  Southern  market 
gardener  then,  should  be  also  a  stock  feeder,  either  of  dairy  animals,  if  his 
location  will  make  them  profitable,  or  of  beef  animals.  In  this  way  he  can 
not  only  largely  increase  his  profits,  and  be  ready  in  times  of  a  serious  glut 
in  the  market  to  use  certain  crops  as  stock  food,  but  he  will  also  be  enabled 
to  raise  a  large  quantity  of  manure,  and  we  have  noticed  that  the  truck  farm- 
ers who  use  the  most  animal  manures  in  connection  with  commercial  fer- 
tilizers are,  as  a  rule,  the  most  successful  in  the  production  of  superior  crops, 
and  their  soil  gets  more  independent  of  drought  conditions  through  the 
humus-making  capacity  of  the  home-made  manures.  While  with  most  crops 
of  the  market  garden  the  commercial  fertilizers  and  legumes  will  bring  fine 
crops,  such  crops  as  cabbage  and  lettuce,  and  cucumbers  and  melons  are  very 
much  superior  when  they  have  some  stable  manure  also. 

25.  Unless  aided  by  the  humus-making  legumes  and  the  humus-making 
manures,  the  heavy  applications  of  complete  fertilizers  in  market  gardening 
will  seldom  have  their  best  effect.  The  man  in  the  South  who  simply  grows 
a  sale  crop  of  corn  after  his  early  truck  crops  in  order  to  get  the  full  returns 


Some  Gteneral  Conclusions — 369 

from  his  investment  in  fertilizers,  will  soon  find  that  he  does  not  get  as  good 
results  from  the  same  application  of  fertilizers  which  his  neighbor  does  who 
follows  his  truck  with  legumes,  and  feeds  stock  and  makes  manure  at  home. 
He  uses  up  the  moisture-retaining  humus  in  his  soil,  and  the  chemical  fer- 
tilizers are  not  dissolved  as  readily  should  drought  intervene,  as  they  are 
in  the  soil  on  which  legumes  have  been  grown  and  stable  manure  applied. 

26.  Not  only  will  it  be  found  important  in  the  market  garden  to  follow 
the  early  crops  with  some  recuperative  one,  but  it  will  also  be  found  fully  as 
important  to  follow  a  well  settled  rotation  of  the  garden  crops  themselves. 
The  diseases,  especially  those  of  a  bacterial  origin,  that  attack  certain  crops, 
infect  the  soil  at  times  so  that  the  same  crop  coming  on  the  land,  or  a  crop 
of  near  relationship,  will  be  more  seriously  aifected  than  in  the  first  place. 
Tomatoes,  egg  plants  and  Irish  potatoes  should  not  follow  on  the  same  land, 
but  should  be  kept  as  wide  apart  as  possible,  since  they  are  all  affected  by  the 
same  diseases.  No  matter  how  heavily  you  manure  it  seldom  pays  to  culti- 
vate the  same  land  year  after  year  in  the  same,  or  a  nearly  related  crop. 

27.  The  market  gardener,  far  more  than  the  general  farmer,  needs  to 
practice  the  home  mixing  of  fertilizers,  because  the  factory  mixed  articles 
are  seldom  mixed  in  the  proper  proportion  for  his  use,  and  the  manurial 
requirements  of  his  crops  vary  to  a  greater  extent  than  those  of  the  general 
farmer.  He  will  find,  too,  that  a  rotation  in  fertilizers  will  often  produce  as 
good  results  as  a  rotation  in  crops.  In  the  lavish  use  of  fertilizers  in  the 
market  garden  certain  forms  of  plant  food,  like  the  phosphoric  acid  and 
potash,  may  accumulate  in  the  soil,  and  there  may  be  no  need  for  awhile  of 
such  heavy  applications  of  these.  Then  a  rotation  with  stable  manure  and 
barn  yard  manures,  in  which  the  nitrogenous  constituents  are  far  in  excess  of 
the  mineral  constituents,  will  be  found  a  valuable  change. 

28.  In  the  home  garden,  where  almost  every  one  relies  upon  stable  man- 
ure and  where  little  attention  is  generally  given  to  a  proper  rotation  of  crops, 
the  soil  often  gets  soured  through  the  accumulation  of  humic  acids,  and  a 
good  application  of  lime  during  the  winter,  followed  in  the  spring  by  a 
generous  application  of  superphosphate  and  potash,  will  renew  the  life  of  the 
garden  and  give  far  better  crops  than  a  continued  application  of  stable 
manure.  We  often  hear  people  say  that  their  gardens  are  so  rich  that  they 
cannot  grow  potatoes,  as  they  run  to  vines.  It  is  not  excessive  fertility  which 
causes  this,  but  an  unbalanced  fertility,  an  excess  of  nitrogen  and  a  deficiency 
of  phosphoric  acid  and  potash.  Add  these,  and  the  garden  which  was  too 
rich  for  potatoes  will  astonish  you  with  its  product.  A  garden  which  has  for 
many  years  been  manured  annually  from  the  stables  is  the  place  of  all 
others  where  the  commercial  fertilizers  will  produce  their  best  effect,  and  a 


370 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding  ^ 

year  or  two  of  substitution  of  the  chemicals  for  the  stable  manure  will  hav© 
the  happiest  effect.  Still,  since  in  the  home  garden  we  depend  upon  the 
stable  manure  to  keep  up  our  humus  supply,  we  must  soon  return  to  the 
manure  pile,  though  we  may  still  supplement  its  deficiencies  with  phosphatic 
and  potassic  additions. 

29.  In  the  orchard,  during  the  formative  period  of  the  trees,  we  want 
n  good  and  well  balanced  growth,  but  not  too  rank  a  one  to  induce  weakness 
and  disease.  Orchards  planted  on  old  and  worn  soils  will  need,  during  their 
early  years,  a  complete  fertilizer.  There  is  no  objection  to  the  use  of  stable 
manure  on  the  young  orchard,  provided  it  is  supplemented  by  a  liberal 
application  of  phosphoric  acid  and  potash  to  complete  and  finish  the  growth 
induced  by  the  nitrogenous  material.  After  the  first  few  years  there  will  be 
plenty  of  nitrogenous  matter  added  to  the  soil,  in  the  legumes  which  should 
be  annually  plowed  under  during  the  period  in  which  the  orchard  is  kept  in 
cultivation, 

30.  Of  late  there  has  been  so  much  written  in  regard  to  the  necessity 
for  continuous  cultivation  of  apple  and  pear  orchards,  that  one  who  does  not 
agree  with  these  writers  is  apt  to  be  considered  heterodox  on  the  subject  of 
fruit  growing.  Those  who  insist  on  the  cultivation  of  orchards  during  their 
whole  life,  have  usually  gotten  their  ideas  from  seeing  the  ill  success  of 
orchards  in  sod,  from  which  a  crop  of  hay  is  annually  taken  and  no  fer- 
tilizing matter  returned  to  the  soil.  Such  orchards  fail  as  a  matter  of  course. 
Meeting  recently  at  a  fruit  growers  meeting  in  Virginia  with  Mr.  Van 
Alsteyne,  of  the  New  York  Farmers  Institutes,  we  were  happy  to  know  that 
as  a  practical  fruit  grower  he  had  found  by  experience  that  it  is  best  to  keep 
a  bearing  apple  orchard  in  grass,  if  the  grass  is  kept  for  the  benefit  of  the 
trees  only.  His  orchard  in  grass  has  given  better  crops  than  cultivated 
orchards  in  the  same  section.  Cultivation  and  the  turning  under  of  humus- 
making  crops  is  all  right  during  the  forming  of  the  tree.  Growth  is  then 
what  we  want,  but  rapid  growth  is  not  favorable  to  early  bearing,  and  we 
check  this  by  putting  the  trees  in  grass  and  then  either  mow  the  grass  two  or 
three  times  during  the  season  and  allow  it  to  rot  on  the  land,  or  allow  pigs 
with  jewelled  noses  to  ramble  in  the  orchard  and  destroy  the  wormy  fruit. 
At  the  same  time  we  must  remember  that  the  mineral  elements  must  be  main- 
tained in  the  soil  through  annual  applications  of  phosphoric  acid  and  potash, 
for  a  fair  crop  of  apples  will  carry  off  three  times  or  more  of  potash  than  a 
crop  of  wheat  of  20  bushels  per  acre,  while  the  maturing  of  the  wood  requires 
a  large  additional  amount. 

31.  In  the  North,  where  snows  come  heavily,  the  apple  trees  may  be 
better  trained  with  a  central  leading  shoot  in  the  head,  but  in  the  South,  a 


Some  General  Conclusions — 371 

head  formed  20  inches  from  the  ground  and  open  and  spreading  is  far  better 
form.  The  low  headed  tree  in  grass  is  more  easily  pruned  and  the  fruit  more 
easily  gathered,  while  the  windfalls  are  hardly  hurt  by  the  fall  on  the  soft 
feod.  Young  trees  in  the  South  are  apt  to  suffer  in  their  first  years  from  sun 
scald,  and  if  headed  but  20  inches  from  the  ground  a  simple  shingle  stuck 
on  the  southwest  side  will  protect  the  stem,  and  the  spreading  top  will  soon 
form  a  sufficient  screen,  while  the  tall  stemmed  trees  are  for  years  exposed 
to  the  effects  of  sun  scald,  and  are  many  of  them  killed  thereby. 

32.  An  occasional  dressing  of  lime  will  be  of  great  benefit  to  orchard 
trees  and  will  promote  the  growth  of  the  sod,  and  thus  increase  the  amount 
of  organic  matter  returned  to  the  soil  from  the  cutting  and  rotting  of  the 
grass,  for  if  we  expect  the  best  results  from  the  apple  orchard  we  must  be 
content  to  devote  that  .land  to  apples  exclusively,  and  not  expect  anything 
but  apples  from  it.  We  will  then  not  be  disappointed,  and  will  have  no 
reason  to  say  that  we  cannot  grow  fruit  as  our  fathers  did.  While  it  has  not 
been  practicable  in  the  limits  of  this  book  to  take  up  the  subject  of  plant  dis- 
eases and  remedies,  we  take  it  for  granted  that  every  fruit  grower  is  awake  to 
the  necessity  for  spraying  his  trees  to  prevent  disease  and  to  destroy  insects. 
At  some  future  time  we  hope  to  take  up  this  branch  of  the  subject  in  a  separ- 
ate treatise. 

33.  In  the  culture  of  the  grape  on  the  pine  barrens  of  the  South  Atlan- 
tic States  it  has  been  found  that  on  these  soils  which  contain  little  plant  food 
of  any  kind,  a  complete  fertilizer  is  annually  needed  to  keep  up  the  growth  of 
the  vines.  On  soils  northward  and  where  there  is  more  of  natural  fertility, 
the  annual  growth  of  peas  (or  other  legumes)  as  a  winter  cover  will  furnish 
all  the  nitrogen  needed,  and  any  artificial  application  may  be  rather  an  injury 
than  a  help,  from  causing  a  long- jointed  and  less  fruitful  cane.  Hence, 
as  in  the  orchard,  the  annual  application  of  phosphoric  acid  and  potash  will 
generally  suffice,  and  a  coat  of  lime  once  in  five  years  will  be  of  great  help. 
Shallow  cultivation  till  July  should  be  the  rule  in  the  vineyard.  Then  a 
sowing  of  crimson  clover  through  the  centres  of  the  spaces  between  the  rows 
of  vines,  where  the  roots  are  feeding,  to  be  plowed  under  in  the  early  spring. 

34.  There  is  no  class  of  cultivators  to  whom  the  humus  content  of  the 
soil  is  of  more  importance  than  to  the  grower  of  small  fruits.  On  a  soil 
deficient  in  vegetable  matter,  the  strawberr}^  rarely  succeeds  well.  A  clover 
sod  or  a  heavy  growth  of  cow  peas  turned  under  forms  the  best  preparation 
for  the  crop.  While  a  complete  fertilizer  is  needed  it  should  not  be  too 
largely  of  a  nitrogenous  character,  since  any  excess  of  nitrogen  is  apt  to  pro- 
duce soft  fruits  that  will  not  ship  well.  Where  quality  is  valued  to  an  extent 
that  will  warrant  the  additional  cost,  the  best  form  of  potash  for  the  straw- 


372 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

berry  is  the  sulphate  free  from  chlorides,  but  as  market  growers  usually  grow 
for  size  and  appearance  rather  than  quality,  the  muriate  is  more  commonly 
used;  on  the  home  strawberry  bed  use  the  sulphate.  Rotation  is  important 
to  the  strawberry  grower,  too.  Two  crops  is  all  that  should  be  taken.  The 
plants  are  then  plowed  under  and  cow  peas  sown  for  hay,  followed  by  vetches 
in  winter  and  corn  in  the  spring.  Then  oats,  followed  by  cow  peas  heavily 
fertilized  with  acid  phosphate  and  potash,  and  the  whole  plowed  under  for 
strawberries  again.  A  sole  dependence  on  the  commercial  fertilizers  is  as 
bad  for  the  strawberry  grower  as  for  any  one  else,  and  he  should  grow  crops  of 
forage  and  feed  cattle  to  make  manure  that  will  aid  in  the  humus  accumu- 
lation in  his  soil.  A  soil  well  filled  with  organic  matter  will  make  a  better 
crop  of  berries  without  fertilizer  than  a  soil  deficient  in  this  will  with  a 
heavy  application  of  fertilizer. 

35.  Finally,  no  matter  what  crop  you  are  using  the  fertilizers  on,  always 
keep  a  small  piece  without  any  application  as  a  check  plat  to  show  what  the 
treatment  is  doing  for  you.  Without  something  of  this  sort  you  will  be 
simply  guessing  as  to  whether  the  application  is  paying  you  or  not.  In 
brief,  study  your  soils  and  crops,  and  do  nothing  simply  because  your  neigh- 
bors or  your  fathers  did  it,  but  always  be  ready  to  give  a  reason  of  an  intelli- 
gent character  for  the  hope  that  is  in  you.  If  this  book  has  no  other  effect 
than  to  set  its  readers  to  thinking,  it  will  have  accomplished  its  mission. 


APPENDIX. 
USEFUL  TABLES. 


ti'ti-j*  I 


The  following  tables  have  been  compiled  from  every  source  tfiaf  is  con- 
sidered reliable.  They  are  largely  the  result  of  Station  investigations  in 
this  country  and  in  Europe,  and  are  given  here  as  a  means  for  reference,  so 
that  the  reader  can  find  for  himself  facts  that  otherwise  he  would  have  to 
correspond  with  his  Station  to  find  out. 

AVERAGE   FERTILIZER   CONSTITUENTS   OF   SEA   WEED. 

One  hundred  pounds  of  dried  sea  weed  of  various  kinds  has  been  found 
to  contain  of:  Nitrogen,  2.65  pounds;  phosphoric  acid,  0.75  pounds;  potash, 
3.35  pounds;  lime,  9.00  pounds;  magnesia,  1.68  pounds.  It  is  evident 
therefore,  that  the  estimate  which  the  farmers  near  the  sea  have  placed  on 
this  material  as  a  manure  is  warranted  by  its  composition.  Those  situated 
accessible  to  the  great  deposits  that  are  washed  upon  our  beaches  will  be  wise 
to  save  all  they  economically  can.  We  were  once  in  our  life  a  seaside 
farmer,  and  know  full  well  the  value  of  the  material.  We  found  that  the 
best  use  for  the  sea  weed  was  to  put  it  in  the  cemented  basement  we  had 
under  the  cow  stables,  and  as  the  droppings  were  sent  down  through  shutes 
they  were  mixed  and  piled  with  the  sea  weed.  The  great  abundance  of 
moisture  and  salt  contained  in  the  material  prevented  injurious  heating,  and 
a  ijegular  daily  dressing  of  the  piles  with  phosphate,  added  not  only  to  its 
manurial  value  the  phosphoric  acid  in  which  it  was  deficient,  but  also  acted 
as  a  further  preventive  of  the  escape  of  ammonia,  and  the  resulting  manure 
gave  remarkable  results  on  our  truck  crops.  As  a  manure  for  sweet  potatoes 
we  found  that  raw  weed,  spread  thickly  on  the  land  during  the  winter  and 
plowed  under  in  the  spring,  was  all  that  was  needed  to  give  the  most  abun- 
dant crops. 

CONSTITUENTS  OF  FORAGE  PLANTS  PER  ACRE. 

The  Pennsylvania  Station  made  experiments  to  determine  the  total  dry 
matter  and  plant  food  in  certain  forage  crops,  and  gives  the  following  results: 

(373) 


374 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 


POUNDS   PER   ACRE,    TOPS   AND   ROOTS. 


Total 
yield. 

Dry 
matter. 

Ash. 

Organic 
matter. 

Nitrogen 

Phos. 
Acid. 

Potasb. 

Lime. 

Flat  pea 

41.412 

9.037 

906 

8.167 

239.3 

49.8 

161.3 

122.2 

Canada  pea. . 

21.582 

4.218 

615 

3.603 

114.6 

30.3 

54.0 

73.1 

Spring  vetch 

10.740 

6.327 

609 

5.718 

127.3 

53.2 

138.0 

143.7 

Band  vetch  . . 

8.316 

2.713 

252 

2.461 

78.7 

22.7 

52.8 

42.7 

Red  clover. . . 

29.760 

7.438 

626 

6.812 

143.7 

39.6 

156.6 

98.3 

White  clover. 

31.440 

6.349 

723 

5.626 

173.8 

51.0 

179.4 

95.6 

Alsike  clover. 

24.786 

5.910 

603 

5.307 

119.8 

36.1 

155.9 

86.1 

Crim.  clover  . 

25.665 

4.604 

501 

4.102 

108.3 

24.6 

97.9 

84.9 

Timothy 

21.750 

6.281 

555 

5.726 

47.0 

27.5 

78.0 

35.5 

To  furnish  the  same  amount  of  nitrogen  per  acre  there  would  be  required 
of  nitrate  of  soda: 

Pounds. 

In  case  of  flat  pea 1495.7 

In  case  of  Canada  pea 716.3 

In  case  of  spring  vetch 795.7 

In  case  of  sand  vetch 495.9 

In  case  of  red  clover 898.2 

In  case  of  white  clover 1086.3 

In  case  of  alsike  clover 749.0 

In  case  of  crimson  clover 676.8 

It  must  be  remembered,  however,  that  when  these  crops  are  cut  for  hay 
a  considerable  proportion  of  the  nitrogen  is  removed  in  the  tops,  but  there 
will  still  remain,  in  the  organic  matter  of  the  roots  and  stubble,  far  more 
than  is  usually  applied  in  a  ton  of  high  grade  fertilizer.  The  following 
table  from  the  Virginia  Station  gives  the  results  from  the  application  of 
different  forms  of  fertilizers  on  the  wheat  crop.  The  amounts  applied  w^re 
sufficient  to  supply  all  the  phosphoric  acid  and  one-half  the  potash  and  nitro- 
gen removed  by  a  crop  of  wheat  of  25  bushels  per  acre: 


Average  of  8  years. 

No  fertilizer 

Potash  and  nitrogen  

Potash  and  phosphoric  acid 

Phosphoric  acid  and  nitrogen 

Potash,  phosphoic  acid  and  nitrogen 


straw  per  acre. 
Pounds. 


769 
1037 
1512 
1769 
1991 


Phosphoric  acid  was  evidently  the  controlling  factor. 


Appendix — 375 


ASHES. 


The  Connecticut  Station  examined  55  samples  of  cotton  hull  ashes,  and 
found  that  the  highest  percentage  of  potash  was  36.45,  and  the  lowest,  10.26. 
The  average  percentage  of  potash  in  all  the  samples  was  22.4  The  Ontario 
College  and  Experimental  Farm  Report  for  1897  gives  the  composition  of  the 
ashes  from  different  kinds  of  wood  as  follows: 


Hickory 

Rock  elm 

Red  oak 

Butternut 

Walnut 

Cherry   

Pear 

Plum 

Peach  

Quince 

Grape  trimmings, 


Per  cent. 
Potash 

Per  cent. 
Soda. 

Per  cent. 
P.  acid. 

Per  cent. 
Lime. 

Per  cent 
Magne. 

Per  cent. 
Iron  ox. 

9.17 

4.35 

2.12 

44.43 

6.49 

0.24 

6.66 

2.69 

.71 

49.52 

2.64 

.25 

5.75 

1.00 

.92 

48.97 

2.45 

.37 

3.99 

2.27 

1.76 

44.95 

5.22 

.45 

4.62 



.70 

35.93 

5.35 

3.42 

5.28 

.92 

1.90 

46.93 

3.00 

1.29 

9.73 

Trace 

.81 

42.07 

3.10 

.39 

4.81 

Trace 

2.49 

48.39 

1.89 

.22 

6.98 

.27 

3.43 

41.49 

3.18 

.30 

6.32 

1.76 

2.29 

48.22 

3.17 

.33 

12.21 

7.67 

6.31 

21.39 

9.96 

.44 

Per  cent. 
Sul.  acid. 


0.56 

.59 

Trace 

.42 

1.51 
.79 
.93 
.63 
.73 

1.07 

2.64 


"The  fact  that  these  ashes  were  pure  and  prepared  from  the  wood  only, 
explains  why  the  percentages  of  mineral  constituents  are  so  much  higher 
than  in  those  found  in  the  average  ashes  of  the  market." 


PERCENTAGE  OF  THE  AVAILABILITY  OF  THE  DIFFERENT  FORMS  OF  NITROGEN. 

The  Connecticut  Station,  in  a  series  of  experiments  with  oats  and  Hun- 
garian grass,  found  the  availability  of  the  nitrogen  in  different  combinations 
as  follows :  Putting  nitrate  of  soda  as  the  standard  of  comparison 


Per  cent,  available. 

Nitrate  of  soda 100.00 

Dried  blood 73.30 

Dry  ground  fish 63.90 

Ground  bone '. 16.70 

Tankage 49.40 

Horn  and  hoof 68.30 

Linseed  meal 68.90 

Cotton  seed  meal 64.80 

Castor  pomace , 64.60 


376 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 

The  constituents  of  fertilizers  are  printed  on  the  sacks  in  percentages. 
Nitrogen  is  usually  put  there  in  the  form  of  ammonia.  To  find  the  actual 
nitrogen  in  the  article  multiply  the  percentage  of 


Ammonia  by  0.8235  and  the  result  will  be  the  percentage  of  nitrogen. 
Nitrogen  by  1.214  and  it  will  give  the  ammonia  for  that  percentage. 
Nitrate  of  soda  by  0.1647  and  the  result  will  be  the  actual  nitrogen. 
Muriate  of  potash  by  0.632  and  the  result  will  be  the  actual  potash. 
Sulphate  of  potash  by  0.54  and  the  result  will  be  the  actual  potash. 


WHAT    CROPS   REMOVE   FROM   THE   SOIL. 


Green  fodders. 


Corn  fodder 

Sorghum  fodder    

Rye  straw  green 

Oat  fodder 

Millet 

Hungarian  grass 

Orchard  grass 

Timothy  grass 

Perennial  rye  grass 

Italian  rye  grass 

Mixed  pasture  grasses. 

Red  clover 

White  clover 

Alsike  clover 

Crimson  clover 


Alfalfa .5.'\i.JQu' 

Cow  pea   

Serradella 

Soja  bean 

Horse  bean 

White  lupine 

Yellow  lupine 

Flat  pea 

Winter  vetch 

Prickley  comfrey 

Com  silage 

Com  and  soja  silage  . . 
Apple  pomace  silage. . 


1    Per  cent. 
Moisture. 

Per  cent. 
Ash. 

Per  cent. 
Nitrogen. 

78.61 

4.84 

0.41 

82.19 
62.11 
83.36 

0.23 
0.33 
0.49 

1.31 

62.58 

0.61 

74.31 

0.39 

73.14 

2.09 

0.43 

66.90 

2.15 

0.48 

75.20 

2.60 

0.47 

74.85 

2.84 

0.54 

63.12 

3.27 

0.91 

80.00 
81.00 
81.80 

0.53 
0.56 
0.44 

1.47 

82.50 

0.43 

75.30 

2.25 

0.72 

78.81 

1.47 

0.27 

82.59 

1.82 

0.41 

73.29 
74.71 
85.35 

0.29 
0.68 
0.44 

83.15 

0.96 

0.51 

71.60 

1.93 

1.13 

84.50 

1.94 

0.59 

84.36 

2.45 

0.42 

77.95 
71.03 
75.00 

0.28 
0.79 
0.32 

1.05 

Per  cent. 
Phos.  Acid. 


0.15 
0.09 
0.15 
0.13 
0.19 
0.16 
0.16 
0.26 
0.28 
0.29 
0.23 
0.13 
0.20 
0.11 
0.13 
0.13 
0.10 
0.14 
0.15 
0.33 
0.35 
0.11 
0.18 
1.19 
0.11 
0.11 
0.42 
0*15 


I'er  cent. 
Potash. 


0.33 
0.23 
0.73 
0.38 
0.41 
0.55 
0.76 
0.76 
1.10 
1.14 
0.75 
0.46 
0.24 
0.20 
0.40 
0.56 
0.31 
0.42 
0.53 
1.37 
1.73 
0.15 
0.58 
0.70 
0.75 
0.75 
0.44 
0.40 


Dry  hay  and  fodder. 


Corn  fodder  and  ears 

Corn  fodder,  no  ears 

Teosinte 

Millet,  common 

Japanese  millet 

Hungarian  millet 

Mixed  grass  hay 

Mixed  rowen 

Red  top  hay 

Timothy  hay 

Orchard  grass  hay 

Kentucky  blue  grass  hay 

Meadow  fescue  hay 

Tall  meadow  oats  grass  . . 

Meadow  foxtail  hay 

Perennial  rye  grass  hay  . . 

Italian  rye  grass  hay 

Salt  marsh  hay 

Japanese  buckwheat 

Red  clover  hay 

Mammoth  clover  hay 

White  clover  hay 

Crimson  clover  hay 

Alsike  clover  hay 

Blue  melilot 

White  melilot  ........... 

Sainfoin  , 

Sulla 

Lotus  Villosus 

Soja  bean,  whole  plant. . . 

Soja  bean,  straw 

Cow  pea,  whole  plant 

Serradella 

Scotch  Tares 

Ox  eye  daisy  

Dry  carrot  tops 

Barley  straw 

Barley  chaff 

Wheat  straw 

Wheat  chaff 

Rye  straw 

Oat  straw  

Buckwheat  hulls 

Couch  grass  hay 

White  mustard,  dry    

Cow  pea,  another  author 

Kidney  vetch 

Vetch,  hairy , 


Per  cent. 
Moisture. 


7.85 

9.12 

6.06 

9.75 

10.45 

7.69 

11.99 

18.52 

7.71 

7.52 

8.84 

10.35 

8.89 

15.35 

15.35 

9.13 

8.71 

5.36 

5.72 

11.33 

11.44 


18,30 

9.94 

8.22 

7.43 

12.17 

9.39 

11.52 

6.30 

13.00 

10.95 

7.39 

15.80 

9.Q5 

9.76 

11.44 

13.08 

12.56 

8.05 

7.61 

9.00 

11.90 

14.30 

15.00 

10.70 

16.70 

16.00 


Per  cent. 
Ash. 


4.91 
3.74 
6.53 


5.80 
6.18 
6.34 
9.57 
4.59 
4.93 
6.42 
4.16 
8.08 
4.92 
5.24 
6.79 


6.93 
8.72 


7.70 

11.11 

13.65 

7.70 

7.55 


8.23 
6.47 


8.40 
10.60 


6.37 

12.52 

5.30 


3.81 
7.18 
3.2.5 
4.76 


6.00 
7.45 
7.50 
5.32 
8.41 


Per  cent. 
Mitroeen. 


1.76 

1.04 

1.46 

1.28 

1.11 

1.20 

1.41 

1.61 

1.15 

i:26 

1.31 

1.19 

0.99 

1.16 

1.54 

1.23 

1.19 

1.18 

1.63 

2.07 

2.23 

2.75 

2.05 

2.34 

1.92 

1.98 

2.63 

2.46 

2.10 

2.32 

1.75 

1.95 

2.70 

2.96 

0.28 

3.13 

1.31 

1.01 

0.59 

0.79 

0.46 

0.62 

0.49 

1.41 

1.77 

2.66 

2.21 

3.68 


Per  cent. 
Phos.  acid. 


0.54 
0.29 
0.55 
0.49 
0.40 
0.35 
0.27 
0.43 
0.36 
0.53 
0.41 
0.40 
0.40 
0.32 
0.44 
0.56 
0.56 
0.2.5 
0.85 
0.38 
0.55 
0.52 
0.40 
0.67 
0.54 
0.56 
0.76 
0.45 
0.59 
0.67 
0.40 
0.52 
0.78 
0.82 
0.44 
0.61 
0.30 
0.27 
0.12 
0.70 
0.28 
0.20 
0.07 

0.81 

0.47 
0.97 


(877) 


378 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 


Vegetable  leaves,  etc. 

Cabbage 

Beet,  garden 

Beet,  sugar 

Carrot   . . , , 

Chicory 

Com  cobs. 

CorD  shucks 

Corn  stalks 

Mangel  wurzel 

Potato  tops 

Sweet  potato  vines 

Tomato  vines 

Tomato  vines,  another. . 
Turnip  tops 


Per  cent. 
Moisture. 

Per  cent. 
Ash. 

Per  cent. 
Nitrogen. 

Per  cent. 
Phos.   acid. 

Per  cent. 
Potash. 

88.40 

1.96 

0.34 

0.20 

0.28 

90.50 

1.46 

0.30 

0.10 

0.45 

89.70 

1.53 

0.30 

0.07 

0.40 

82.20 

2.39 

0.51 

0.10 

0.29 

85.00 

1.65 

0.35 

0.10 

0.43 

80.10 

0.59 

0.21 

0.05 

0.22 

86.19 

0.56 

0.18 

0.07 

0.22 

80.86 

4.25 

0.28 

0.14 

0.41 

90.50 

1.41 

0.30 

0.08 

0.41 

77.00 

3.13 

0.40 

0.18 

0.46 

80.06 

2.45 

0.42 

0.07 

0.73 

73.31 

11.72 

0.24 

0.06 

0.29 

83.61 

3.00 

0.32 

0.07 

0.50 

89.80 

1.19 

0.30 

0.09 

0.28 

Vegetables 

Artichokes 

Beans,  garden 

Beans,  soja  ... 

Beets,  garden 

Beets,  sugar 

Carrots 

Parsnip 

Potato   

Turnips 

Cabbages 

Celery   

Cucumber 

Horse  radish 

Lettuce 

Mushroom 

Onion 

Peas,  garden 

Pumpkin 

Radish 

Rhubarb  tops 

Spinach 

Sweet  potatoes 

Tomato 


Per  cent. 
Moisture. 

Per  cent. 
Ash. 

Per  cent. 
Nitrogen. 

Per  cent. 
Phos.   acid. 

Per  cent. 
Potash. 

80.00 

0.98 

0.32 

0.14 

0.48 

15.00 

2.74 

3.90 

0.97 

1.21 

10.00 

4.80 

5.51 

1.04 

1.26 

88.00 

1.07 

0.20 

0.08 

0.48 

86.95 

1.04 

0.22 

'     0.10 

0.48 

89.79 

0.92 

0.15 

0.09 

0.51 

83.20 

1.00 

0.18 

0.20 

0.44 

79.75 

0.99 

0.21 

0.07 

0.29 

89.49 

1.01 

0.18 

0.10 

0.39 

90.52 

1.40 

0.38 

0.11 

0.43 

84.10 

1.76 

0.24 

0.22 

0.76 

95.99 

0.46 

0.16 

0.12 

0.24 

76.68 

1.87 

0.36 

0.07 

1.16 

94.00 

0.81 

0.07 

0.37 

88.80 

1.00 

0.47 

0.34 

0.51 

87.55 

0.57 

0.14 

0.04 

0.10 

12.62 

3.11 

3.58 

0.84 

1.01 

92.27 

0.63 

0.11 

0.16 

0.09 

93.30 

0.49 

0.19 

0.05 

0.16 

91.67 

1.72 

0.13 

0.02 

0.36 

92.42 

1.94 

0.49 

0.16 

0.27 

71.26 

1.00 

0.24 

0.08 

0.37 

93.64 

0.47 

0.16 

0.05 

0.27 

Appendix — 379 


Seeds, 

Acorns,  dry 

Barley  

Corn  grains 

Buckwheat  

Millet,  common  . 

Millet,  Japan 

Soja  beans 

Cotton  seed 

Sorghum  seed  . . . 

Oats   

Wheat,  spring. , . 
Wheat,  winter. . . 

Rye 

Rice 

mej 

and 
ind  c 
md  I 
flou: 
iatfl^ 
meal 

By  products. 

Com  cobs 

Hominy  feed 

Gluten  meal   

Glucose  refuse 

Malt  sprouts 

Brewers'  grains,  dry 
Brewers'  grains,  wet 

Rye  bran 

Rye  middlings 

Wheat  bran 

Wheat  middlings. . . 

Rice  bran  

Rice  polish    

Cotton  seed  meal  . . . 
Cotton  seed  hulls  . . . 
Linseed  meal,  O.  P. 
Linseed  meal,  N.  P. 
Peanut  cake  meal  . . 
Apple  pomace 


Per  cent. 
Moisture. 


15.00 
14.90 
10.88 
14.10 
12.68 
13.68 
18.33 
8.42 
14.00 
18.17 
14.35 
14.75 
14.90 
12.60 


Per  cent. 
Ash. 


2.55 
1.53 


4.99 
3.78- 


2.98 
1.57 


0.82 


Per  cent.       Per  cent. 
Nitrogen.    Phos.  acid. 


1.04 
1.76 
1.82 
1.44 
2.04 
1.73 
5.30 
3.13 
1.48 
2.06 
2.36 
2.36 
1.76 
1.08 


0.37 
0.82 
0.70 
0.44 
0.85 
0.69 
1.87 
1.27 
0.81 
0.82 
0.70 
0.89 
0.82 
0.18 


Mill  products. 

Per  cent. 
Moisture. 

Per  cent. 
Ash. 

Per  cent. 
Nitrogen. 

Per  cent. 
Phos.  acid. 

Per  cent. 
Potash. 

Corn  meal   

12.95 

8.96 

11.17 

13.43 

14.20 

9.83 

8.85 

1.41 



3.37 
2.06 

1.58 
1.41 

1.86 
1.55 
1.68 
2.21 
3.08 

0.63 
.     0.57 
0.77 
0.66 
0.85 
0.57 
0.82 

0.40 

Corn  and  cob  meal 

0.47 

Ground  oats 

0.59 

Ground  barley 

0.34 

Rye  flour 

0.65 

Wheat  flour 

1.22 
2.68 

0.54 

Pea  meal 

0.99 

Per  cent. 
Moisture. 


12.00 

8.93 

8.59 

8.10 

18.38 

9.14 

75.01 

12.50 

12.54 

11.74 

9.18 

10.20 

10.30 

7.81 

10.17 

8.88 

7.77 

10.40 

80.50 


Per  cent. 
Ash. 


0.82 
2.21 
0.73 


12.48 
3.92 


4.60. 
3.52 
6.25 
2.30 
12.94 
9.00 
6.95 
2.40 
6.08 
5.37 
3.97 
0.27 


Per  cent. 
Nitrogen. 


0.50 
1.63 
5.03 
2.62 
3.55 
3.62 
0.89 
2.32 
1.84 
2.67 
2.63 
0.71 
1.97 
6.79 
0.69 
5.43 
5.78 
7.56 
0.23 


Per  cent. 
Phos.   acid 


0.06 
0.98 
0.33 
0.29 
1.43 
1,03 
0.31 
2.28 
1.26 
2.89 
0.95 
0.29 
2.67 
2.88 
0.25 
1.66 
1.83 
1.31 
0.02 


380 — Crop  Growing  and  Crop  Feeding 


Fruits  and  nuts. 


Apple  leaves  in  May  

Apple  leaves  in  September. 

Apple,  fruit 

Apple  tree,  whole 

Apricots,  fresh  

Blackberries   

Blueberries 

Cherries,  fruit 

Cherries,  tree,  young 

Cherries,  branches 

Cherries,  roots   

Cherries,  trunks 

China  berries   

Cranberries,  fruit  

Cranberries,  vines 

Currants 

Grapes,  fresh 

Grapes,  wood 

Lemons 

Nectarines 

Oranges,  California 

Oranges,  Florida 

Olives,  fruit 

Peaches,  fruit 

Peaches,  branches 

Pears,  fruit 

Pears,  branches 

Pears,  roots 


Pears,  trunks   

Plums 

Prunes 

Raspberries 

Strawberries,  fruit . . 
Strawberries,  vines  . 
(Chestnuts,  native. . . 

Peanuts,  hulls   

Peanuts,  kernels 

Peanut  vines,  cured 

Banana  

Pineapples 


Per  cent. 
Moisture. 


72.36 
60.71 
85.30 
60.83 
85.16 
88.91 
82.69 
86.10 

79.50 
67.20 
53.20 
16.52 
89.59 


86.02 
83.00 


83.83 
79.00 
85.21 
87.71 

58.00 
87.85 
58.26 
83.92 
84.00 
66.70 
49.30 
47.43 
77.38 
81.82 
90.84 


40.00 
10.60 
6.30 
7.83 
66.25 
89.28 


Per  cent. 

Ash. 


2.33 
3.46 
0.39 
1.25 
0.49 
0.58 
0.16 
0.58 

0.78 
1.22 
0.81 
4.13 
0.18 
2.45 
0.53 
0.50 
2.97 
0.56 
0.50 
0.43 


1.42 
0.32 
1.93 
0.54 
0.76 
1.40 
1.71 
0.54 
0.49 
0.55 
0.60 
3.34 
1.62 
3.00 
3.20 
15.40 
1.15 
0.35 


Per  cent. 
Nitrogen. 


0.74 
0.89 
0.13 
0.35 
0.19 
0.15 
0.14 
0.18 


1.19 


0.16 


0.15 
0.12 
0.19 
0.12 
0.18 


0.90 
0.09 


0.18 
0.16 
0.15 
0.15 


1.18 
1.14 
4.51 
1.76 
0.08 
0.02 


Per  cent. 
Ptios.   acid, 


0.25 
0.19 
0.01 
0.05 
0.06 
0.09 
0.05 
0.06 

0.05 
0.08 
0.04 
0.43 
0.03 
0.27 
0.11 
0.09 
0.42 
0.06 

0.05 
0.08 
0.12 
0.05 
0.22 
0.03 
0.04 
0.07 
0.07 
0.02 
0.07 
0.48 
0.11 
0.48 
0.39 
0.17 
1.24 
0.29 


Per  cent. 
Potash. 


0.25 
0.39 
0.19 
0.17 
0.29 
0.20 
0.05 
0.20 

0.06 
0.07 
0.06 
2.33 
0.09 
0.32 
0.27 
0.27 
0.67 
0.27 

0.21 
0.48 
0.86 
0.24 
0.50 
0.08 
0.08 
0.11 
0.13 
0.24 
0.31 
0.35 
0.30 
0.35 
0.63 
0.95 
1.27 
0.98 


Appendix — 381 


Dairy  products. 


Whole  milk,  average 

Skimmilk    

Cream 

Buttermilk 

Whey 

Butter   

Cheese 


Per  cent. 
Moisture. 


87.00 
90.25 
74.05 
90.50 
92.97 
79.10 
33.25 


Per  cent. 

Ash. 


0.75 
0.80 
0.50 
0.70 
0.60 
0.15 
2.10 


Per  cent. 
JN  itrogen. 


0.53 
0.56 
0.40 
0.48 
0.15 
0.12 
3.93 


Per  cent. 
Phos.   acid. 


0.19 
0.20 
0.15 
0.17 
0.14 
0.04 
0.60 


Per  cent. 
Potasii. 


0.18 
0.19 
0.13 
0.16 
0.18 
0.04 
0.12 


Woods. 


Ash   

Chestnut,  bark 

Chestnut,  wood 

Dogwood,  bark 

Dogwood,  wood 

Hickory,  bark 

Hickory,  wood   

Magnolia,  bark 

Magnolia,  wood 

Maple,  bark 

Oak,  post,  bark 

Oak,  post,  wood 

Oak,  red,  bark 

Oak,  red,  wood 

Oak,  white,  bark 

Oak,  white,  wood  . . . 

Pine,  Ga.,  bark 

Pine,  Ga.,  wood 

Pine,  old  field,  bark. 
Pine,  old  field,  wood 
Pine,  yellow,  wood . . 
Sycamore,  wood 


Per  cent. 
Moisture. 


10.00 
10.00 
10.00 
10.00 
10.00 
10.00 
10.00 
10.00 
10.00 
10.00 
10.00 
10.00 
10.00 
10.00 
10.00 
10.00 
10.00 
10.00 
10.00 
10.00 
10.00 
10.00 


Per  cent. 
Asli. 


.0.32 
3.51 
0.16 
9.87 
0.68 
3.97 
0.68 
2.98 
0.48 
9.49 
12.10 
0.77 
«.29 
0.57 
0.26 
0.26 
0.37 
0.03 
1.94 
0.18 
0.23 
0.99 


Per  cent. 
Plios.  acid 


0.01 

0.11 

0.01 

0.14 

0.06 

0.06 

0.06 

0.09 

0.06 

0.42 

0.12 

0.07 

0.10 

0.06 

0.02 

0.02 

0.02 

0.01 

0.09 

0.007 

0.01 

0.12 


Per  cent. 
Potash. 


0.14 

0.28 

0.03 

0.34 

0.19 

0.14 

0.19 

0.19 

0.14 

1.18 

0.25 

0.17 

0.18 

0.14 

0.11 

0.11 

0.02 

0.05 

0.08 

0.008 

0.02 

0.23 


POUNDS  PER  ACRE  IN  A  CROP  OF  COTTON  YIELDING  100  POUNDS 
OF  LINT  PER  ACRE. 


Material. 

Roots  (83  lbs.) 

Stems  (219  lbs.) 

Leaves  (192  lbs.) 

Bolls  (135  lbs.) 

Seed  (218  lbs.) 

Lint  (100  lbs.) 

Total  pounds  per  acre 


Per  cent. 
Nitrogen. 


0.76 
3.20 
6.16 
3.43 
6.82 
0.34 


20.71 


Per  cent. 
Phos.   acid 


0.43 
1.29 
2.28 
1.30 
2.77 
0.10 


8.17 


Per  cent. 
Potash. 


1.06 
3.09 
3.46 
2.44 
2.55 
0.46 


13.06 


Per  cent. 
Lime. 


0.53 
2.12 
8.52 
0.69 
0.5,5 
0.19 


12.60 


Per  cent. 
Magnesia. 


0.34 
0.92 
1.67 
0.54 
1.20 
0.08 


4.75 


ANALYSES   OF   FERTILIZERS   AND   FERTILIZER   MATERIALS. 


Materials. 

Per  cent. 
Nitrogen. 

Per  cent. 
Available 
phos.  acid. 

Per  cent. 
Insoluble 
phos.  acid. 

Per  cent. 

Total 
phos.  acid. 

Per  cent. 
Potash. 

L  Supplying  nitrogen 

Nitrate  of  soda 

Sulphate  of  ammonia  . . 
Dried  blood,  high  grade 
Dried  blood,  low  grade  . 

15.5  to  16 
19     to  20.5 
12     to  14 

10  to  11 

11  to  12.5 
5     to    6 

7     to    9 
6.5  to    7.5 
5     to    6 

3      to     5 
1     to     2 
11     to  14 
6     to     8 
1.5  to    2 
1     to    1.5 

26     to  28 
13     to  16 
33     to  35 

16  to  20 
26     to  32 
32     to  36 

17  to  18 
20     to  25 
22     to  29 
15     to  17 
11.4  to  23 

Concentrated  tankage  . . 

Bone  tankage 

Dry  fish  scrap 

Cotton  seed  meal 

' 

2      to     3 

Castor  pomace 

2.  Supplying  plios.  acid 
S.  C.  rock  phosphate  . . . 

1      to     1.5 

26     to  28 
1      to     3 

33     to  35 
1     to    4 

26     to  32 

32     to  36 

1  to    2 

15  to  17 

16  to  20 

2  to    3 

S.  C.  acid  phosphate. . . . 



12     to  15 

Fla.  land  phosphate. . . . 

1 

Fla.  superphosphate. . . . 

14     to  16 

Fla.  pebble  rock 

Bone  black 

1 

Bone  black  superphos.  . 

15     to  17 

.f^      to     S 

Ground  bone        .   ,   . 

2.5  to    4.5 

Steamed  bone 

1.5  to    2.5^  6     to    9 
2     to    3     13     to  15 

Dissolved  bone 

Thomas  slag 

3.  Supplying  potash 
Muriate  of  potash 

50 

Sulphate  of  potash,  h.  g. 

48     to  52 

Sulph.  of  pot.  and  mag. 
Kainit 

26     to  30 

12 

Sylvinite 

16     to  20 

Cotton  hull  ashes 

7     to    9 
1     to    2 
1     to     1.5 
3     to    5 

0.17 

20     to  30 

Wood  ashes  un  leached 



2     to    8 

Wood  ashes,  leached  . . . 

1     to    2 

Tobacco  stems 

2     to    3 
0.29 

5     to    8 

4.  Farm  manures 
Cattle  excrement,  solid, 
fresh 

0.10 

0  58 

0.49 

Hen  manure  fresh 

1.10 
0.44 
1.55 
1.00 
0.60 
3.20 
0.55 
1.95 
0.60 
0.49 

0.85 
0.17 

0.56 

Horse  dung,  solid 

Horse  urine  fresh 

0.35 

1.50 

Human  manure 

1.09 
0.17 
1.90 
0.31 
0.01 
0.41 
0.32 

0.25 

Human  urine 

0.20 

Pisreon,  drv 

1.00 

Sheep  dung,  solid 

Sheep  urine,  fresh 

Swine  dung,  fresh 

Bam  yard  manure  aver. 

0.15 

2.26 



0.13 



0.43 

(882) 


Appendix — 383 


AMOUNT   AND   VALUE   OF    MANURE    PRODUCED   BY    DIFEERENT    FARM    ANIMALS. 


Animal. 


Sheep 
Calves 
Pigs  .. 
Cows. . 
Horses 


Per  1,000  pounds,  live  weight. 


Amount  per  day, 


34.1  pounds 
67.8  pouuds 
88.6  pounds 
74.1  pounds 
48.8  pounds 


Value  per  day. 


7.2  cents 
6.2  cents 
16.7  cents 
8.0  cents 
7.6  cents 


Value  per  year 

$26.00 
24.45 
60.88 
20.27 
29.27 


Value  of 
manure 
per  tou. 


13.30 
2.18 
3.29 
2.02 
2.21 


This  is  from  the  bulletin  of  the  Cornell  University  Agricultural  Experi- 
ment Station,  and  is  based  on  a  valuation  of  nitrogen  at  15  cents,  phos- 
phoric acid  at  6  cents  and  potash  at  4%  cents  per  pound. 

To  prevent  loss  from  the  manure  while  it  is  necessary  to  keep  it  stored 
it  is  advised  to  use  the  following  preservatives : 


Preservative. 

Acid  phosphate 

Plaster  

Kainit   


Per  horse  of 
1,000  lbs. 

Per  cow  of 
880  lbs. 

Per  pig  of 

220  lbs. 

Per  sheep  of 
110  lbs. 

lib.,    0  oz. 

1  lb.,    2  oz. 

3       ozs. 

2  1-2  ozs. 

1  lb.,    9  oz. 

lib.,  12  oz. 

4  3-5  ozs. 

3  3-5  ozs. 

lib.,    2oz. 

1  lb.,    5  oz. 

4        ozs. 

3  1-5  ozs. 

If  kainit  is  used,  it  should  be  applied  to  the  fresh  manure  and  covered 
with  litter,  so  that  it  does  not  come  in  contact  with  the  feet  of  the  animals. 
All  preservatives  are  more  effectual  if  applied  to  the  manure  while  it  is 
perfectly  fresh. 

FOOD   CONSTITUENTS  IN  DIFFERENT   PARTS^   OF  THE   PEANUT   PLANT. 
IN  WATER  FREE  SUBSTANCE. 


Alabama  peanuts 

Tennessee  peanuts 

Georgia  peanuts 

Spanish  peanuts  (Georgia) 

Peanut  vines  and  leaves 

Peanut  hay  (average) 

Peanuts,  inner  coat  of  kernels 

Peanut  meal  (av.  of  2,785  analyses) 


jf 

.  a 

"1 

*5 

1^^ 
S  §  « 

55 

10.88 

4.26 

35.37 

2.66 

19.33 

55.37 

4.86 

2.51 

27.07 

2.52 

19.30 

48.60 

12.85 

2.18 

30.49 

2.34 

21.86 

43.13 

13.15 

2.72 

32.18 

3.50 

20.43 

41.17 

31.20 

10.64 

12.63 

22.32 

48.34 

6.07 

12.94 

3.39 

7.22 

67.29 

19.42 

2.68 

10.80 

5.72 

25.11 

20.96 

26.89 

21.52 

10.74 

5.48 

52.49 

5.93 

27.26 

8.84 

^Oh 


5.50 
4.33 
4.88 
5.15 
2.02 
1.17 
4.00 
8.40 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


\)i 


% 


